Long story short,was going to change the T-Belt,even bought the crank tool! Decided to go to carlisle instead. You guessed it,belt broke[mine is at home safe with the tool].Got towed to dealer 4:30pm friday.No they don't work late,car ready on Monday. Now for the good news,dealer only replaced the belt,no new tensioner or seals.What gives!Anyway,should I go and redo the tensioner and seals or just leave it?Can I do any of these without removing the belt.Your thoughts are welcomed.
PS Didn't have any fun at the cold,rainy,carlisle show.Some cool bricks though!
Nelson

My thoughts.

227000 miles and I have not done the Tensioner or the seals yet.
New belt every 40000 but that's it. No leaks no squeaks no change.
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'75 Jeep CJ5 345Hp ChevyPwr and two motorcycles: it wasn't Volvos safety , it was Longevity that sold me

If there are no leaks, I probably wouldn't bother with the seals. They won't strand you if they fail. The timing belt tensioner is another issue. The bearing in the tensioner wears, and the tensioner can seize and smoke the belt. The tensioner should be replaced every other timing belt change. This is preventative maintenance just like replacing the belt.

I know that I disagree with a lot of experienced and knowledgeable people on this subject but I would not replace the tensioner and seals unless there was an apparent problem with either. Having owned, driven and serviced Volvos for over 35 years, I've yet to have a tensioner fail. All of the cars that I own now have in excess of 200K and still have original equipment. I know that they do fail occasionaly, but not enough to become a regular maintenence item in my opinion. During each timing belt change I examine the tensioner and seals. If the tensioner runs smooth and the seals don't leak, they don't get replaced at my shop. It may just be luck that I haven't had a failure, but I'd be suprised if luck had a part (especially in my case).

What caused a new belt to break?

You really want to fix that!

This is just my (somewhat) experienced opinion:

Since you have the tool, pop the crank off, replace the seals, replace the tensioner, and have another 50k where you KNOW that nothing in there is going to break. Unless there is some sort of part failure, that is.

I think that's not too bad a choice. Besides, you have a nice Volvo timing belt in there; why not just chalk the cost up to "should've done that" and do the work when the weather is nice some afternoon. Although in all honesty, it will "probably" be fine if you don't touch anything. The dealer might have tried to get you for a tensioner if it was that bad. If not... they were missing out on a pretty easy sale.

I had a similar thing happen to me; I neglected to check on a strange noise immediately after a timing belt job. It turned out that I ended up getting towed 50 miles to Sawyer Imports in De Kalb, IL, and spending $200 to re-do what I just did. Plus $100 for the tow. Nice way to dump $300 that should've still been in my pocket. But that is how it goes.
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Chris Herbst, near Chicago.

I have so many other projects that I want to complete I think I'll leave well enough alone.The service manager in Allentown,Pa. was very nice. I told him I belonged to VCOA,was attending the car show and I would bring him an autographed picture of Mr.2 Million Mile Volvo,Irv Gordon, all for good will you see. I guess he did the right thing and didn't sell me what i didn't need. If I were back in New York I am sure it would have been a completely different story. thanks to all who responded, now to complete the restoration of my 81 bertone
Nelson

So that's fine that you're a busy guy , but if you already know you're not going to do anything about it, why ask for peoples' opinions? It takes time for other people to reply to questions.

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Chris Herbst, near Chicago.

I wasn't sure if I should change the the other components. The replys were about 50-50 to change or leave alone till the next time.after reading the replys this is when I made up my mind. It is not to say that I won't just change the parts anyway as I don't like having new parts taking space in the garage. I thank everyone for taking the time to respond.Chris ,I didn't post a message to waste anyones time.I got some opinions and made a decision.From the posts it appears that changing the seals and tensioner is not critical.I hope this clears up any misunderstandings and I thank you again for your reply.
Nelson

You can replace the tensioner without removing the belt. At each pulley put some white out on the belt and the pulley at the same spot. That way you can easily check to make sure it hasn't slipped a notch in the process of replacing the tensioner. If it's not leaking oil, maybe you'll want to wait 50,000 miles to replace the seals and do it at the next belt. The existing tensioner might last that long too. It depends on how old it is. Is it noisy right now? Good luck.
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Thanks to everyone for the help, Doug C. 81 242 Brick Off Blocks, stock, M46; 86 240, 131k

All is quite right now. Car has 158k.Tensioner I think was last changed at 60k.Change it or go for broke[broken] again?