Car trouble

tracey1701

Looking for advice, my car recently had work done at a garage, new cam belt kit full service and 2 new tyres, the auxiliary belts were missed and one broke I had it recovered to the garage who corrected the problem free of charge. Picked the car up and drove it 5 miles, engine died, had it recovered for a 2and time to the garage who have said the timing is out, they are "investigating" to see it the problem was caused by them, they are talking about taking the head off as valves have probably been damaged, has anyone hot any advice as to how to proceed, its left me with no transport to and from work and being unable to care for my elderly parents. 

DUTR

The story seems remarkably similar to one a few weeks ago.
I take it they don't offer a courtesy vehicle.

Goudy

So you had the timing belt changed and it ran alright until the original aux belt snapped, but now the timing is out?

Sounds like when the aux belt broke it may have jammed up the crank pulley causing the timing to jump or it damaged the timing belt.

Years ago manufacturers used to fit a cover to separate the two belts, not many bother these days and it's not that uncommon for one to take the other out when it goes,

The garage should have replaced the aux belt when they did the timing belt, they would have had to remove it anyway to get at the timing belt.

There are plenty of "if's" and "should have's" in regards to what the garage should and could have done, but getting them to admit they made an expensive mistake when they saved £10 or £12 on an aux belt in the first place might be difficult.

Hopefully there's no damage to the valves and it's just a matter of resetting the timing.

 

EdGasketTheSecond

You don't need to take the head off to check for valve damage, you just do a compression test once the timing has been checked.

AdrianC

I find it very bizarre that somebody would put the old aux belt back on. You can't change the cambelt without removing it, so there's zero extra labour to change it, just a couple of quid for the new belt.

I remember the recent thread, @DUTR - but that was different in that the aux belt had been changed, got thrown, changed again - then ate the cambelt.

EdGasketTheSecond

Some cars have the stretch type aux belts; these can be a PITA to fit a new one whereas the old one just slips back on, no trouble, as it has already stretched. Corner-cutting for sure but I can see that if someone only paid for a timing belt, why they might not change the aux belt.