Has anyone had experienced having to change the engine belt on a 2010 V6 XF? Is this a workshop job?

 

Well you need locking tools for the cams, there's a lot of stuff to remove, really depends on how good you are with your spanners!

 

Depends on what belt you mean.
The AJ30 (AJV6 3.0 aka Ford Duratec) engine doesn't have cam belts instead it has metal timing chains, much like the AJ126 which replaced it.
If you mean these chains then yes that is a big and tough job best left to a workshop unless you are very handy with the spanners.
If instead you mean the rubber serpentine belt on the front of the engine which drives the ancillaries then I expect that is nowhere near as difficult and potentially a DIY job. Just my 2c worth as I don't know much about the AJ30!

 

I'm assuming this is the 3.0 D which has a timing belt at the front + the serpentinebelt that drives the w/pump, alternator etc
There is also a rear belt that drive the high pressure fuel pump, but this is good for 150,000 miles

 

Picture of both belts from 3.0D

 

Sorry John but he has a petrol V6 (AJ30) not a diesel, this is something we ironed out soon after he joined up!

 

is that the 2.7TDV6 or the 3.0V6?

[edit] for some reason it didn't show me ozXFR's response before I posted this.

Assuming you mean the rubber accessory belt, then yes you can change this yourself. I changed the one on my 4.2l a few weeks ago, which is harder to work on because there's a lot less space under the hood to mess about in and you have to get the supercharger belt out of the way first.

The main thing you'll need is a serpentine tensioner wrench. On my V8 I needed to use a 1/2" square drive on the supercharger pulley and 3/8" drive on the accessory belt pulley to release the tension. I presume the V6 uses a similar 3/8" socket.

If you remove the air intake ducting from the throttle body you should be able to access most of the front of the engine. I found it was easier to access the tensioner pulley from underneath by propping up the car up on some jacks and dropping the air deflector. You can simply cut off the old belt and feed the new one around the engine from above and below.

The biggest issue I had was not being able to release the tension easily, the wrench I had was straight and there were lots of pipes and other bits of engine in the way which meant whilst I could get the wrench into the socket I didn't have enough space to pull the arm far enough to release the tension. So I cut my wrench head off and welded it back on at an 30 degree angle, which gave me enough leverage room to move it. I don't know if this will be a problem for you as the layout of the engine bay is slightly different and less claustrophobic, the workshop manual doesn't show you needing a special tool to do this for the 3.0l unlike the 4.2.

I would also recommend using a racket strap or similar to hold the tension wrench in place whilst you slip the belt on so you don't have to try and move it and hold the tension off at the same time. You'll find it easier to start by feeding the new belt around the crankshaft, tensioner pulley and A/C at the bottom of the engine first as you have lots of slack to play with and you can move it about easily. As you go around you get less and less slack and it gets more fiddly to get it on so ideally you slip it over the steering pump and then top idler last where you have better access to them (the last one is still a bit tight even when the tension is supposed to be "off").

 

Jebus, does no-one here actually read the previous posts!
He has a PETROL not a diesel!!!!!!!

 

for some odd reason it wasn't showing any replies to the original post on my screen. Now I know what it is I've updated the post.

 

Thanks for all the reply's. I will leave this job to the professionals. Will cost more but probably the way to go.
P.S. I haven't been on this site for long, but it's very helpful and reading some of the other questions and the reply's to them , makes for very interesting reading.
Thanks again.