Cam belt timing issue (sorry cars again)

amazingtrade

amazingtrade

Mad Madchestoh fan
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My dad has his cam belt replaced last night (from a man recomended by my uncle not a garage which I kept telling him to use to go instead of an unkown machnanic) any it was fine last night driving back but now the car is ideling and the engine is racing.

I am fearing the cambelt may to to tight and could snap, or is it normal to put the camblet on tightly as it will work looser after a few days?
 
I can't see a connection between idling speed [which is part of the fuel carb/injection system] and cam belts - tho I'm not expert at all.

I have a question along the lines of "knowledge is power". Big Tone might be able to help?

The latest fad for changing cam-belts early/at all - which garages love of course..but there are plenty of cars out there that will NOT suffer damage if the cam-belt snaps..it just depends on the structure of the cylinder head/valves etc

Can we make a list of cars+engines that will definitely NOT be damaged, so that we don't have to follow the paranoia that the manuf. want us to have if we have that model?
 
Well the cam belt is also known as the timing belt so there must be a conneciton some where, it drives the cam shaft. I am not sure what it exactly though I am not an expert either.

I know for a fact the Ford Zetec 1.6 and 1.8 engines can bother suffer a lot of damage due to a cam belt failure. I think it www.honestjohn.co.uk which listed the cars most likely to be affected. My cousin had a car identical to ours and his belt snapped a few years ago bending most of the 16 valves. The car was scrapped.

I know some body that had an 80's BMW 3's series, I couldn't say what engine it was, the belt snapped on that and no damage was cuased whats so ever. I think its also due to how many revs you're doing at the time, if you are doing 7000 rpm then its likely to cause a lot of damage.

All I know is the engine was running fine yesterday pre belt change, today its ticking over to fast and almost sounds like a diesel.
 
Well A/T, if the cambelt was set possibly one tooth out, the preformance and idling and overall drive ability could well be affected as well as the possibility of engin damage in the very near future.
OR, it could be he hasn't coneected the idle speed control valve back up/map sensor pipe not on properly/engine crancase breather not on properly/maybe if he disconnected the battery, the cars ecu, need to 'Learn' the driver again, some vehicles have to do 30 or 40 journeys before settleing down ?
maybe the lamnda sensor was disconected and connected back up again?. This may help WM
 
Graham, ok a few spring to mind Fiat chinqy/secento/punto 8v 998/1108/1252 all models/Cavalier family 2 engines 16/18se's low compression 2,0litres.
I have a autodata cam book at home I'll dig it out tonite and post it tomorrow ok Graham. Tone
 
Thanks, I know the cat convertor is loose but I am not sure how this could affect the idle speed. I will have a good listen later to the exact sound.

We have disconnected the battery before and it worked fine afterwords, I think the ECU data is burned in EPROM but I may be wrong. I will check the radio (if he has d/c the battery the radio won't work as it will need the code).

Its my dads fault for trying to get it done on the cheap anyway.
 
The Machnaic fixed it yesterday and amitted one of the pulleys wasn't put on properly. Rather worryingly though this machanic said the car had no oil in it, (it had plenty in it last week and its never had to be topped since we bought the car in october) and I am sure I read some were that if a cars burning up oil thats a sign of cam shaft or cylinder damage. I just hope this wasn't caused by the fact the cam belt wasn't put on properly.

I am going to check the oil myself tonight, (its got oil in now). I knew the oil was sludgy before because it needs service (its going in for this next week).
 
If the pulley wasn't on properly, that's poor, the end result quite possible being he same as having the cambelt fail.

As for cars that don't suffer valve damage (and piston if you're unlucky and the engines going round fast enough) the ones that do suffer greatly outeigh the ones that don't, mostly due to the trend towards higher revving "over square" engines, so it's almost safest to assume that they all will suffer.

To add to Tones list (he's forgotten more about cars than I'll ever know), ones that don't suffer damage IIRC are

1) Some of the Ford Pinto engines from the Cortina / Sierra
2) The Volvo 2.1 petrol unit.

Don't know about any of the others. Either way, it's usually massively inconvenient when they fail, and can't usually be fixed by the roadside, and therefore worth doing anyway IMO. It's not even difficult on those two.

Some of the V6 lumps in the smaller (Vectra / Mondeo sized) cars are a real pig to do. And Vauxhall seem to think it's funny to make you undo / remove an engine mount just to change the alternator drive belt let alone the Cambelt on many models.
Speaking of which, don't neglect the alternator / PAS etc drive belt on the Vauxhall Ecotec engines. While this failing in itself is not a catastrophe, they have a tendecy to be thrown in the path of the Cambelt when they break, unseating that and causing it to jump off just like it had broken. I've heard of 7 cases of this now from friends in the trade over the last couple of years.

Cheers
 
Thanks guys for your knowledge. The only car I can recall that was OK was covered in Tony's list - an old 1300 Astra.
This sort of detail ought to be freely available.

FWIW I have been lucky with 2nd hand bargains from known owners, and I have a major service inc cam-belt from a friendly garage after I buy them. Course it helps if you have 2 cars, or can wait until bargains happen.
 
Its been a week after the event now and the car seems fine, the oil is fine so I am guessing the machanic was just lying about the oil to cover his own back. There is nothing at all coming out the exhaust of any worry so I am hoping no damage was caused.
 

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