Do I replace the Timing Belt and Tensioner with the Waterpump?

[IceWhite]

My waterpump is getting noisy, starting to leak and it has play. It is done for!

I changed the waterpump, timing belt and tensioner together exactly 5 years ago, and they have 7500km's / 4660miles on them. I feel that I should replace the timing belt and tensioner again due to it's age, but is it really necessary?

Any thoughts welcome. TIA.

[ForcedFirebird]

Absolutely. 5yr is over the time interval.

[IceWhite]

^Wow. Thank You, that response was quick!

What is the time interval? I know I read it somewhere, and now I can't remember.

[McGyver]

I believe the BMW recommended interval is 5 years and/or 60k miles, whichever you reach first. That being said, I wouldn't want to go past 4 years and/or 50k miles. Since the m20 is an interference engine, I'd rather change the belt a little early to prevent having to fix a broken head.

I also replace the water pump, valve cover gasket, rocker shaft plugs, camshaft seals, and do a valve adjustment any time I do a timing belt. Its not that much extra (like $100 or so for the parts), and prevents repeating the job due to oil/coolant leaks. I also suggest buying a nice water pump gasket (~3) instead of using the thin paper gasket that comes with most pumps. I have used Graf pumps in the past, but lately they've failed in ~20k miles, so I have switched to using Geba, which seems to be holding up better.

Also also, if you have the older stamped cam or oil pump intermediate shaft gears, i would upgrade them to the newer design to avoid sudden failure:

[IceWhite]

^Thank You for the informative post and for those great suggestions too. I did have in mind the camshaft seal and the distributor cap & rotor as well.

Thank You for the picture reference!

[lukeADE335i]

Definitely swap the belt with the water pump & the upgraded gears are also worth it, but the timing belts aren't as fragile as people make out. Some even swap them every 2 or 3 years out of paranoia.

My Dad swapped an M20 from my car to his, thought he did the timing belt while the engine was out but he accidentally did the belt on another M20 that he sold, not the one that he put in his car. The water pump failed around 5 years later & he thought ah well - time for a timing belt anyway so all good. When he pulled the car apart the belt had perished, but not broken - he thought it was weird that the belt would look like that after only 5 years & then realised his mistake. We went back through the maintenance records for my car and realised the belt was 13 years old and had done over 100,000 miles. He was lucky, but the timing belt paranoia with the M20 is also a bit over the top if you use quality parts.

[e30austin]

I change them every 5 years or 50k miles, whatever comes first. Echoing McGyver's sentiment, Graf is now owned by Precision Parts (China), so I won't install one under any circumstances - they are now junk. Geba is still a good, German made pump and I use them regularly.