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After buying a '95 945, (my first Swedish sweetheart) last year, one of the first things I wanted to do was change the timing belt and fix the occasional stalling at idle problem. The timing belt was never changed, (and I never changed one). A Volvo mechanic that does side jobs offered to change the timing belt and look at the stalling problem. Great! Get a few things out of the way and I can get on with normal maintenance items as I find the time. I do about 95% of the maintenance myself. The mechanic changed the T belt, flame trap, and cleaned the T-body which he thought was the cause of the stalling and threw in a few Volvo oil filters. (The stalling at idle problem was fixed!)
On this great NC afternoon, I was changing the accessory belts and "struggled" a little with loosening the nuts and adjusters aided by a little WD40, thinking that this was normal because the belts were last changed about 50k miles ago. After the toughest and the last little challenge, the PS pump, it hit me, all the belts had to have come off 8k, 5 months ago for the T-belt change. Without removing the pulleys, I pealed back the top of the T-belt cover to look at the condition of the belt.
Question, was the T-belt changed? It had no cracks in the rubber, the outer surface had a crystalline sort of finish but the inner surface looked good. I saw a white painted punch on the cam pulley but no dot adjacent to it on the belt. Do Volvo belts have the white dots? Would 8k and 5 months have worn off the white dots off? Is it possible that… I don't care about the $260. I just want to know if the T-belt was really changed.
Note to AGOStumpy: Great post, you’re an inspiration to all us shade tree mechanics.
Note to myself: Try to increase my own automotive maintenance to 98%.
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Tom F
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