Bought an st170 recenly garage said guy who owned it before me done cambelt ? ive got reciept for timing belt kit but no reciept for labour because app he got his uncle to do it. sounds fair enough cos sort of thing i would do(if its expensive to fix buy the part get my old man to fit it) ive asked my ol man but he not sure. Is there a way of telling if it has been done ? without stripping stuff down?

 

Take the cam belt cover off, and see what condition the belt is in.

 

lol is it easy ? im a welder not really mechanical ? without sounding like a tit is the cambelt the belt you see to the left of the engine looking down on it ??

 

If you can see the belt when you look in the engine bay, chances are its the auxilary drive belt, unless your running it without the cam belt cover, which quite a few people do these days.



If you look at this pic, the cam cover is silver, and it has the black plastic spark plug cover running through the middle of it, that says duratec st etc. well if you look to the left side of the cam cover, there is another black plastic cover, that goes from top to bottom, that is the cam belt cover. it should be two, or three at the most, bolts/screws holding it on. should take literally a couple of minutes to take it off mate, then you will see the belt

 

cheers dude thanks for that mine has got that plastic cover on it but im sure when i take it off im going to see a belt and its just gonna be a belt to me ? how do i know if its been replaced ? will it look newish ? if its frayed or old looking shall i take it that its never been done ?

 

Just look for ware mate. to be fair, you cant always tell just by looking at it, but if its got a lot of ware marks off the cam pulleys, id be worried if it had been changed or not. if its been done recently, the marks off the cam pulleys shouldnt be to visable.

im sure the recommended belt change intervals on the ST170 are 100k miles, or 10 years, whatever comes round first.

 

thanks il have a look tomoz ! if its worse case and looks wanked is it an expensive job do you know ?

 

Wont be cheap mate if your getting it done at ford, even a reputable non main dealer your going to be looking at a good few hundred quid.

 

i best hope it has been done then ! thanks for your time dude

 

No problem fella