Im pretty certain the crank shaft pulley needs replacing on my tin topas ive had a look and its all sloppy and loose and started making a grinding type noise couple of days ago. Ive only got tomorrow to fix it, if i cant find a garage that can fit me in, whats involved? One garage said the cambelt pulley can slip if you dont do it right, surely it would be on splines though? Aparrently its a common problem at this age, anyone else experienced it? Thanks

The garage is talking nutsack the timing belt drive pulley is on a woodruf key to change the crankshaft pulley its a case of taking of the alternator belt buzzing off the crank pulley bolt fit new pulley put some thread lock on the pulley bolt and tighten re fit alternator belt crank pulley bolt is ft

ps its very common but very easy to rectify

I've done one on a T reg 306 HDi a while back, not a lot to the job really. The auxillary belt is the pain the backside, I cant just remember how I moved the sprung tensioner for it back, I'm pretty sure there was a ceratin tool/technique for it. Mabye something with an 8mm square drive they use for sump plugs or something you got a spanner on from behind the alternator?
Make a drawing of the route the belt runs to save remembering it & mabye getting it wrong.
The crank pulley bolt can be a bit of a bugger but sticking it in 5th gear & getting someone to hold the brake on is usually enough or a decent impact gun.
the pulley should just come off once the bolt is out leaving the cambelt sprocket behind on the crank & I'm fairly sure it's keyed to the crank. Done loads of cambelts on the older XUD which is very similar & the cambelt sprocket moving has never been a problem.

The crankshaft pulley on a 306 HDI has a rubber pulsation damper built into it.

When the rubber of that damper breaks up then it will display the symptoms you describe.

No alternative but to replace it with another, and they aren't cheap. My son had one replaced with a good second hand one (from a written off car) and the Pug specialist recommended welding it up to make it last longer.

Right youve convinced me to do it myself thanks, just hope i can get one in time

Thanks for the advice, job done now and only cost £73 so not too bad. Cheers everyone, wasnt difficult at all in the end.