Well the snow has melted so I changed the timing belt today. Never done one before but having checked this and other sites for info I felt ready for it!
I previously soaked the pulley bolts in wd40 so they came off easily, however the centre hex head screw holding on the plastic lower timing belt cover rounded off so I had to drill that out.
The belt was quite loose and the tensioner was stiff to turn in a couple of places once it was off although the belt didn't seem in danger of failure anytime soon but it may have been more elastic than it ought to have been.
Of course the pulleys moved while I was trying to get the new belt on and the car was difficult to start at first. After checking I found that I hadn't positioned the intermediate shaft sprocket correctly and also that I was one tooth out on the crank. I was not lining the flywheel up right either, I was using a notch when I should have been lining up the pointer with the small 'o' (they are both next to each other - say 1" apart.)
All told took about 3 hours but was easier than I'd thought, the nice weather did help alot!
I checked the car tonight and the annoying rattle has gone and the car even feels more zippy so all in all a pleasing result.
