Crankshaft seal renewal guide

[Ax_beefy]

I'm bored and have some excellent photos floating around so heres a guide for renewing the crank seal

If you have a leak coming from the left hand side of the engine (drivers side) and it appears to be coming from timing belt area the problem is most likely to be the crank shaft oil seal, to renew this seal do the following:

Firstly drain the oil using the sump plug at the rear of the engine and jack the car up on axle stands

Slacken the alternator belt and remove it, being careful not to damage it

Remove alternator pulley wheel by undoing the three bolts (the large one on the crank)

Remove lower timing belt cover (you have to take them all off actually)

Before you go any further ensure you lock both the flywheel and and the camshaft, to do this insert a small bolt (5mm I think) into the timing hole in the gearbox flange and a bolt into the timing hole in the camshaft pulley wheel (10mm I think)... or get a timing tool from citroen)

Right with the crank and cam locked you can remove the timing belt, to do this slacken the nut on the belt tensioner wheel and rotate it upwards. Now slid the belt off the pulleys noting which way round it is fitted

You should now be looking at this:


Hold crank pully in place (place two of the outer bolts in the holes and use a bar as a lever... do not rely on the timing tool to stop the crank rotating) and undo the bolt...


Remove pulley wheel


Remove the seal cover (might need to lever with a screw driver, be careful not to damage it)


Now remove the seal.... this is probably the hardest part!!... I would tap it with a screw and pull it out with plyers, but you may need to use a punch to weaken and distort it to make it easier (just be careful, only damage the seal!)


Now if it looks like the above photo good job! lol, clean all around the area, smear some fresh oil on the new seal and tap it evenly in place with a socket that bears directly on the outer edges of the seal (not in the middle! as that would distort it!)

Replace the seal cover, pulley wheel and tighten the bolt up

Now you can replace the timing belt, ensuring it is fitted the same way as you took it off. To tension the belt either use a citroen tool and the correct weight or the finger thumb method:

Find a largish allen key that fits into the square hole on the tensioner pulley and use this as a lever to rotate the wheel downwards so it applies pressure to the belt, tighten up the nut, now pinch the timing belt between your finger and thumb in the centre of its longest stretch (the front of the block), now gently tiwst the belt you should be able to twist it no more than 90', adjust if neccessary. Now remove the timing tools and rotate the engine 3 turns using a large spanner on the crankshaft nut.... now retest the belt and tighten if neccessary

Replace all the timing belt covers and the alternator pulley and belt

To tension the alt belt wind out the adjuster until there is approximately 5mm of travel in the belt if pressed firmly with the thumb, then tighten the alternator bolts up

Jobs a good un'.... drop the car to the floor, fill up with oil and go for a drive... don't push it too hard for the first hour or so (let the engine heat up so the seal can expand and do its job)

Hope this helps anyone

Mark

[SAM33R]

excellent stuff

[DjRestricted]

cheers mate. quality thread. This is gonna save me sooooooooo much trouble.

[ragitaround1]

will oil flow out if i take the crank oil seal out to replace it?

[ryan_g86]

Nice guide mate, cheers.

[ragitaround1]

gota do some work on engine lol ,gota take heater matrix out n replace as gota wet carpet lol after i realized i had a leak i now am on a mission which is getting bigger n bigger coz when i brought the car i was not sure when the cam belt etc was changed? so i thought right ill change that ! now this is where my OCD comes in coz now that i gota do the belts i need to do the thermostat ,oil seals crank/cam, bearing in mind i dont have all the tools to do this! hahaa so feck it!! ive brought the tools which includes harmonic balancer kit, GOTA LUV EBAY AINTCHA! Ive bin hunting the web for vidz,picz n advice on how to go about doing the jobz inhand! ive worked ona few cars ov all models n makes in a diy effect but this will be the first time ill be gettin involved with the timing side ov mechanics! so i would consider myself as a fairly confident diy avagoa lol. but there are some bits i want to be sure ov before i start doing it, ive got every thing i need as ive bin buying parts, tools n fluids bit by bit , gota say im gettin excited bout doing it but hoping i do it all in the right order startin with flushing the cooling system through completely n im gonna remove all hoses n radiator to treble check they are free from muck etc. i will try & put picz or vidz ov my progress for those who would like to ava lafff at my efforts heeeheee. feel free to comment n advise n help would be greatly appreciated!!!