sandspider

What year?

It is apparently now sorted! It's worked fine so far, but only had to start it warm once... 🤞 Apparently the issue was the timing on the diesel pump, and they've not charged me anything, despite it taking 5 hours or something to strip down and retime. As long as it now behaves, I'm reasonably happy! Not sure I'd go to the same garage again for a belt change though... Thanks for the help 👍

Well, back at the garage today, same garage that did the work. Went on the ramp at 9am, and the mechanic is still working on it. Fingers crossed he can fix it, and won't charge me the earth to do so - especially if he's just repairing mistakes he made the first time!

Thanks Jamie, I'll look into them.

I'm near Chepstow. So Bristol / Newport are all doable. Where do you recommend? Thanks.

Ha, I wasn't actually going to tell him he'd done it wrong, I was going to be more subtle! As it happens he's had an accident and broken himself, so he can't look at the car again until the 19th now anyway. Darn it. It no longer starts all the time from cold either ☹️ Thanks again Alasdair.

Thank you. Hopefully it's just that simple, and they don't charge me any more if they got it wrong the first time! I'll tell the mechanic he's done it wrong 😀 And the 4k was to possibly replace the whole camshaft, much engine dismantling required, not just to do the pulley...

It's hard to know for sure of course- I've only got the new garage's word for it. 🤷‍♂️ Thank you.

I had the belts done last time at a garage recommended from here (as far as I remember anyway), in Bath. According to my current garage they didn't do a great job - bolts missing from the waterpump, not tightened up etc. Hence a bolt getting into the cambelt recently. But it was 4 years since the belts were done by that garage, so might just be bad luck...

In the pic he showed me, about 5mm of the cog was worn, on the block side. But a good 3/4 of the width of tooth was still there. Hard to find a garage I can trust!

Thank you Alasdair, that's very helpful. Cog looks right, but I'll double check. Yeah, the 4k bill was to basically dismantle the engine to potentially replace the whole camshaft. Looks like that wouldn't be necessary as the cog comes separately, but I still can't see how a worn edge to it would affect timing. My suspicion is that the mechanic has got it slightly off.

Thanks Alasdair, that's helpful. I'll pass it on. Seems to be driving fine so far. And I've already driven it a few hundred miles since the belt was done!

Thanks. Back at the garage on the 13th, I'll get him to check everything again. I'll mention floating pulleys! Given that it seems to run fine should I not drive it in the meantime?

Hmm. The engine runs nice and smoothly when it's running. I believe the locking tool was new... But it does seem an odd coincidence...

Just to add, the check engine light has never come on. And the mechanic is sure he got the new timing belt on properly, all the pins lined up correctly, etc.