NBFL 1.8 VVT Timing Belt Renewal

[TVRees]

This winter, I am planning to change timing belt, water pump, springs, tensioner pulleys, etc.

Does anyone have any tips and experiences for buying a kit of parts ?

Any help is as always much appreciated.

[geordiepingu]

Had no problem with the MX5parts kits on my NA. Imagine it's not that different for an NBFL

[Colin RedGriff]

I bought the MX5 Spares kit for the VVT and it was fine. You need the VVT specific kit as the cam cover seal is different and the oil seal for the VVT operated cam (if you change it) is different.

Other than that it was pretty straightforward to fit, lining up the cam sprockets is a little bit more tricky because of the difference with the VVT cam sprocket, but there are some good vvt videos on youtube to help.

[Beati Dogu]

I did mine back in Jan / Feb this year. I took the opportunity to clean and paint up the cam cover with some black crinkle paint and it looks much nicer now. It has to be removed anyway.

Label both sides of any cabling to make it more obvious and easier later on (I just used single letters A-A etc). Each plug is generally different anyway, so it's hard to get wrong.

I used a parts box with dividers so I could label up & store the various bolts you have to undo. Saves a lot of grief later on.

There should be 19 belt teeth between the timing marks on the cam sprockets.


There's a handy belt tensioning mark for the bottom pulley. Before fitting the tensioning spring, just have the tensioner wheel loose.

Rotate the crank round just shy of two revolutions, so that the half moon gap in the crank pulley lines up with the tensioner mark on the engine.

Now you can hook the tensioner spring on and tighten down the tensioner bolt. As seen here:

https://youtu.be/Ne_6k5bclMg?t=746

[TVRees]

Thanks to all for the information. I will check the mx5parts.co.uk and maybe wait for black Friday

[Mr MXT]

Are you planning to change the crank oil seal? If you are, DONT SCRATCH THE CRANK!!

Other than that, be methodical, remember the 19 teeth and don’t panic too much because it’s none interference if you get it really wrong!

[TVRees]

Thanks for the tip. I will probably change the seals too.

Does anyone know the dimensions of the seals, so I can but them locally ?
I'm in Hungary and its pretty easy to get such seal rings from a number of very local shops.

Normally outside diameter, inside diameter and seal width are enough to find the relevant part.

[geordiepingu]

TVRees said:

Thanks for the tip. I will probably change the seals too.

Does anyone know the dimensions of the seals, so I can but them locally ?
I'm in Hungary and its pretty easy to get such seal rings from a number of very local shops.

Normally outside diameter, inside diameter and seal width are enough to find the relevant part.

Not sure but I would honestly just get some Mazda OEM seals. They lasted 25 years on my car before I swapped them out, they'll probably last another 25 years to the guy I sold it to.

[TVRees]

Many thanks to all for the tips and advice.