S/V/C 2001 v70 T5 b5234t3 CVVT - question not answered in VIDA

So I'm doing this lovely timing belt, seals, pcv, lower engine mount, etc. job for a friend...

I have a copy of VIDA working, and in the CVVT setup it says over and over "Turn the timing gear pulley so that the screws at the oval holes are in the limit position."

Great.... sure thing. But uh... Which limit position? Advanced or retarded? Clockwise or CCW?

Everything else says clockwise, so I assume that I loosen them, turn the gear clockwise to the limit position, then snug them just a tad, but I reallllllly dislike assumptions when it comes to CVVT. The last thing I want is this woman to drive off, hit the gas, and CVVT kicks in and introduces valves to pistons.

Also, I think the problem was likely that the last idiot to change the timing belt did an intake (no CVVT) seal and left it cock-eyed in the bore... and didn't set the CVVT correctly. I mean, I can't see why with these great instructions and all


This car is a mess.

As i remember, there's a few vids on Youtube about this stuff. Depends on which cam pulley you have. Some are spring loaded, some are able to freely turn clockwise/counter clockwise a bit. If it's that spring loaded one, you might need to preload it
Whatever you do, don't remove the pulley from the cam - that'll screw you up and you'll need the cam alignment tool.

Have you locked the cams?

Gottaroll is correct. If its spring loaded (with the cams locked), the three 8mm are loosened, finger tight, then the HUB is rotated clockwise at 25nm to take up spring slack. then the 8mm are torqued.

Yes, I locked the cams and already replaced both cam seals. I made my own locking tool out of angle iron and it's working great. Is there a different cam alignment tool? This one?
https://www.ipdusa.com/uploads/images_products_slideshow/fullsize_21476.jpg

I should have specified, it is the spring loaded type.

This keeps getting better and better... all the timing marks are lined up, but the one on the oil pump is pretty hard to see.
Turned it over by hand about 10 times. No issues. Didn't check compression but that would be helpful. In the process of cleaning the insane amounts of oil off the engine, the coil packs got wet. I'm hoping that's the problem. Or maybe the throttle module is wet.

It sounds like a lawnmower with a bad governor.. Or a group of ricers revving their crapmobiles. There is sucking noise from the intake like the throttle is opening up a lot in a short amount of time.

The weirdest thing is that the engine actually eventually, after surging up and down for a minute. revs itself up and up to where it sounded like about 2500rpm. No codes. Previous codes for heater O2 sensor and vss (bad abs-tcs module)

This car is being weird, and the previous owner was a junkie/tweaker. Any suggestions? I just caught a flight to see my dad before he dies and this car is still on hold.

by reading your post i suspect the ETM (electronic throttle module) is bad. The cause is the 2 TPS's , they wear out and consequently the ECU starts trying to compensate the idlespeed resulting in hunting revs.

In VIDA there is a specific test procedure to see if this is the case.
The older white labelled Magneti Marelli ETM's (as found on the earlier cars) are the most suspect.
The yellow labelled ETM's are supposed to be better.
But the ultimate difinitive fix is conversion of your ETM to contactless magnetic TPS
https://xemodex.com/us/ sell them.

Sorry to hear about your Dad

Did it run OK before you did the belt? Oil on the coils certainly won't help. Could also be a displaced vac line.
Re-check everything. If it ran for a minute or two and didnt throw a code for timing...you're probably good there

955IsAlive said:

Sorry to hear about your Dad

Did it run OK before you did the belt? Oil on the coils certainly won't help. Could also be a displaced vac line.
Re-check everything. If it ran for a minute or two and didnt throw a code for timing...you're probably good there

Click to expand...

Thank you, I appreciate that. I don't think he'll see Halloween.

It ran poorly with a lot of vibration, and I believe the exhaust cam was about 3 teeth clockwise past where the locking tool locked it. Compression was barely 90-100 on a warm engine even with oil added.


It ran for maybe 1 minute. I was reading the VIDA info last night, and I'm telling myself that the timing is fine but something was wet.
We'll see when I get home.

Three teeth could be accounted for by the VVT unit's normal range..
Now if it was still three teeth out with the cams locked and the VVT reset, ie the markings didn't line up with the VVT clocked fully clockwise, then yeah that would explain some things.

If it was three teeth out "mechanically" then the VVT would have possibly added another three. With a total of six.... you can guess what might happen.
I think it's worth doing a leakdown.

Nice! Started it up and it ran weird for one second, then idled down to 1000ish. Sounds normal now. I still need to pull the manifold and clean the to and service the pcv.

Thanks everyone!

To answer my own question, kinda, there are only a few spots where the sprocket can wind up because the teeth can wind up on top of the high points of the cog. Mine wound up towards the middle to get the belt to seat right tooth to tooth.