2 * 2.1 SD

[Dieselman]

I did note it is 180 degrees round the pulley, but it's on the inside, so not visible when assembled.

I wondered if the arrow indicated the point the oil pump sprocket should be aligned to, but decided not to as: A; the sprocket abuts a fully circular crank journal and B; the sprocket keyway was originally offset, as I have now set it again.

As the arrow is not pointing inwards, I wonder if it is simply a direction arrow, or even just a makers mark.

[Dieselman]

I feel like I'm going round in circles here.

I started the engine and let it run for some minutes, including revving and all seemed well, no oil leak,

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so I loosened the main crank pulley bolt to be able to refit the timing belt cover and oil ran down the face of the block and dripped off.

Removing the timing belt again and further dismantling showed the oil seal to be leaking.

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I tried to pry the seal out to no avail, so drilled, screwed in a screw and pulled it out which revealed the tension spring had come off the seal. I don't know if this came off as a result of prying, but suspect it had already come off, causing the Vee lip to have no pressure against the crank journal.

It is possible for the springs to come off when fitting the seal and I should really have packed the spring with grease to reduce the risk of that happening, but the manufacturer states to install the seal dry.

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I acquired another seal, this time an Elring 107.130, which is for C5, C6, etc and is one piece with no spring. Instead of a double Vee lip and clockwise sipes, it uses a continuous clockwise scroll, to deflect oil back into the engine.

It also comes with a fitting sleeve to ensure it rides onto the journal readily. I should have made one for the first seal, but am sure it went on without issue and don't think the spring came off at that point.

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I didn't think the silicone could have contacted the seal, but it was only inside the recess of the pulley. The seal has an external dust seal, so even if it had made contact, it couldn't go past that.

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I refitted the timing belt using the jamming it on the fuel pump and rotating the crank backwards half a tooth, method. I only needed the upper engine mount off to refit the upper rear timing cover.

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I also fitted a new hydraulic pump belt, which at 1085mm was slightly too tight to be able to work it over the pulley, so I pushed it on until it gripped then manually wound the engine forwards to wind it on.

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[Dieselman]

I intend to splash some fresh paint onto the subframes. I have previously painted them using bitumastic paint, which is OK, but due to being a soft paint has worn off.

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Having jacked the car up I removed the front bumper and while having good access, decided to remove the bolts up through the bottom of the radiator support unit. These have been out previously, but probably not for ten years, or more. They do suffer from road splash and can seize in badly. These had indeed seized, but not terribly.
When coming across this and removing the radiator support unit I have previously cut the bolt heads off, removed the support and dealt with the caged nut afterwards, but am not removing the radiator support, so decided to unscrew the bolts.
The problem is that even a small mount of rust in the bolt threads causes the caged nut to spin in it's pressed steel housing, which is fully enclosed inside the composite radiator support unit.

I opted to drill a couple of holes and cut between them to create a slot, then was able to tap in a 17mm spanner to hold the caged nut, while undoing the T35 bolt.
After removal I cleaned the bot and nut threads, re-installed the nut and reformed the caged nut, sprayed with zinc primer and top-coat, bolted it back together and sealed the slot to stop water ingress, also with anti-seize copper grease on the bolt threads.

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