Hi all -

I'm new here - just purchased my first CRD, a 2002 Jeep Cherokee Sport 2.5L CRD (~75k miles = 122k km) in Costa Rica. Unfortunately here mechanics are easy to come by but good ones are few and far between, so after lurking here for a bit I decided to take my Jeep to the dealership for the timing belt/pulleys/tensioner change since the PO didn't have any records of it being done and it seems to be past due for the 2.5s. Since mechanics here tend to be the professional shade tree type, I didn't want to risk anywhere that may not have seen one of these before.

Well, after waiting at the dealer (I live about 2 hours from the city, so drop off wasn't really an option) for around 6 hours, they come out and tell me they're having a tough time getting some bolt off of the timing assembly - I assume this means on a pulley or the tensioner, but not quite sure. They said they didn't want to force it so were trying to get it off with liquid wrench equivalent, and gave me a loaner car to come back the next day (today), when they said it "should" be done by the afternoon.

Any thoughts on this? Does this sound like something that has happened to anyone previously? From my past experience, a timing belt shouldn't take more than 4-5 hours tops... I was going to try and change it myself but the special tools required made me nervous so I decided to go the "safe" route with the dealership...hope this wasn't a mistake!

Thanks all, looking forward to many years on here!

Cheers
Alec in Costa Rica

On our 2.8s all the idler pulleys are left hand thread. This includes the serpentine and timing belt. I really hope someone buy accident didn't wrench the wrong way.

Also the mechanical fan can be extremely difficult to remove, and penetrating oil is the only way to go here in michigan.

I'd ask to see the problem and get on this forum with more specifics ASAP.

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06 CRD/samco's/GDE eco tune/fumoto/toyo H/T /brake controller/tow package

04 TJ/3" OME/1" MML/1"BBL/3/4" coil spacers up front/discos/Extended bump stops/adj. Rear track bar/hi-lift/ 33x10.5x15 toyo MT on steelies/Epi9000superwinch/nates front bumper/extended breathers/160amp alternator

Theoretically they see a lot of these, since the same engine has been sold by the dealership (and currently still is) for years... I'll try again to find out exactly whats going on, but customer service here isn't exactly what it is in the US, unfortunately

Well your lucky if they have dealt with diesels. I couldn't find a single dealership/shop in my area that had ever done a timing belt on a 2.8 diesel. AKA why many of us are paranoid about letting a stealership wrench on our CRDs.

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06 CRD/samco's/GDE eco tune/fumoto/toyo H/T /brake controller/tow package

04 TJ/3" OME/1" MML/1"BBL/3/4" coil spacers up front/discos/Extended bump stops/adj. Rear track bar/hi-lift/ 33x10.5x15 toyo MT on steelies/Epi9000superwinch/nates front bumper/extended breathers/160amp alternator

Not lucky until the car comes out alive! Will update once I have more info from the dealer...

Thanks!

I Don't know.....that sounds a lot like the customer service I've seen....bad, late and expensive.....

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2005 CRD
stuff
Skeptic quod gratis asseritur, gratis negatur

Well, everything seems to be OK. They had the car back together by 2pm today and did the serpentine belt/tensioner/pulleys as well, though those pulleys and tensioner for the serpentine belt sure were pricey - more than the timing belt ones by a lot. Seems to run well - I am lucky that the dealer here sees a lot of the CRD (Wranglers and Cherokees both use them here in current models and back to at least 2002). Though consider yourselves lucky to be in the USA for part costs - ours are subject to dealer costs plus a 50-90% (thats right) import duty, which hurts when it comes time to put on original pieces. For future upgrades, I'll be sure to bring everything down straight from the US of A.

By all means don't feel obligated to answer this question, but I gotta ask: how much did it cost ya????

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06 CRD/samco's/GDE eco tune/fumoto/toyo H/T /brake controller/tow package

04 TJ/3" OME/1" MML/1"BBL/3/4" coil spacers up front/discos/Extended bump stops/adj. Rear track bar/hi-lift/ 33x10.5x15 toyo MT on steelies/Epi9000superwinch/nates front bumper/extended breathers/160amp alternator

Labor: $280
Parts: Ridiculously expensive.
Total to change all the pulleys, both tensioners, timing belt, gasket and serpentine belt was around $1500 including parts and labor. The really expensive ones were the serpentine tensioner and pulleys, which added something like $600 to the total cost. I just consider this insurance against failure since I'm paranoid after having a timing belt go on my diesel Range Rover last year...

If you need parts from the US in the future shoot me a line, I have an account where I get parts at a 25% discount so I can offer them to you at a very competitive price, if I have the part number I can order it, and usually pretty quickly.

For example, the OEM timing belt runs about $160usd.

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http://www.Colorado4Wheel.com
"Its not about what you can DO with your Jeep, its about where you can GO with your Jeep."
Knowledgeable - But Caustic

Hey, you should try living on the other side of the US

Labour: Ridiculously expensive.
Parts: Ridiculously expensive.

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Share your ideas freely at https://www.facebook.com/groups/libertydiesels/

CostaRicaCRD actually it sounds like your bottom line did not come out too bad in comparison to a similar project in the US. Your low labor cost got offset by the high parts cost so the bottom line came out about the same. Now if you could combine the low labor cost with US parts prices you would have a real deal.

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Sold to LOST member my 05 Ltd, GDE Stg II turbo + TCM tune, SunCoast TC w. Transgo kit, Steiger window regulators, Samcos, Fumoto valve, 2nd gen filter head with Lub. Spec. bleeder, Hayden clutch & 11 blade fan, inverted spare, P-1 battery, BF Goodrich Long Trail TAs, Etecno1 glow plugs, timing belt at 50K miles/8 yrs

Funny how things work out like that. For future repairs, I'll likely be sourcing parts from the US but I didn't want to wait on the timing belt since it hadn't been done at 120k km and sounds like the interval for these is 100k. While even at 120k km (75k miles) its still well under the 100k mile mark, I definitely didn't want to risk anything!