Timing Belt Replacement- PLEASE HELP!!

[GWVolvo]

Alright guys, So I have a 1998 V70XC with around 150K on it. It has been making these weird almost grinding sound when I start it up and it is idling. I popped the hood and found that it seemed to be coming from the "Camshaft Cover" or timing belt cover. It sounded like the belt was grinding against the plastic cover. I then pulled on the throttle cable to rev the car a little and the grinding sound went away. I figured it was just the cover that needed to be pulled off so I could look at everything. I proceeded to take off the Timing belt cover and when reaching down in the timing belt area about 3 Ball Bearings fell out and onto my garage floor!! I don't know what these are for but I did some research and figured that now I need to replace my timing belt, tensioner, and cover. Please help me with any advice on what happened and what I need to do to fix my car! Any help would be appreciated!! Thank You!:confused:

[StoningtonXC70]

DO NOT ATTEMPT TO START OR RUN THE ENGINE AT THIS POINT UNTIL YOU HAVE THE BELT AND TENSIONER REPLACED!

You may be lucky at this point that the belt has not jumped time and all your valves are still intact. Running the engine with a broken tensioner will surely lead to belt slip and or breakage and bending valves. Hopefully this has not yet happened to your engine.

Have the car towed to where it will be repaired. Make sure it is not started again at the repair shop to put it into the service bay. They can push it in.

I've been down this road and it wasn't any fun. All my intake valves were bent. Cheapest option ended up being replacing the head with a known good used one.

[StoningtonXC70]

In mid 98 Volvo changed the type of tensioner used on the V70 5 cylinder engines from a hydraulically operated (using oil pressure) type to the type you have - a spring loaded idler pulley.

The older type tensioner apparently had a long service life and a replacement interval was not specified. The replacement idler needs to be replaced every timing belt change. Volvo started giving a replacement interval in the 99 model year owners manuals, but did not , to my knowledge ever update the 98 manuals or identify the requirement to owners of 98 cars equipped with the new design tensioner.

At 150K your car probably has had 1 timing belt change (and may be due for another one) but likely did not get a replacement tensioner.

In my case, a new timing belt was put on by the dealer at my request on purchase at 105K. I did not know about the tensioner (nothing in my owners manual about it) and it failed suddenly at about 135K, taking out all my intake valves in the process.

While you are having the belt and tensioner replaced, also replace the timing belt driven water pump. At 150K, there's a good possibility it will go before you will need the timing belt and tensioner done again, and the labor involved to do it alone is essentially the same as replacing all three items.

I can't advise you on doing the timing belt and tensioner change yourself, other than it is not an easy job for the inexperienced.