Hi There.

I just got my timing belt changed today and noticed on the way home that the power was way down on the engine. Acceleration was poor and fuel economy seems to be bad. The engine sounds slightly different too. Any ideas what the problem could be?

Shay.

Timing is incorrect or they have missed retightening something back together, most would rattle if advanced timed, but would loose power retarded.:(

Cheers Gazza.

Whats involved in adjusting the timing? I have VAG_COM.

Shay

belt back off and start again!!!!!!!

Take it back to whoever did the timing belt,and get them to fix the problem.

I had this on my 110 tdi. Garage replaced belt then engine was noisy and sluggish. I took it back after a while and they sorted it pretty quick. To cut it short they admitted they cocked it up and they fixed it.

My first thought was ignition timing (petrol) or fuel timing (diesel) wrong.

Ask the place that did it to sort it. Make it very clear that you will expect them to meet the costs of a consequent failure if they don't.

Cheers Gazza.

Whats involved in adjusting the timing? I have VAG_COM.

Shay

Is it diesel or petrol? Use VAG COM to check for fault codes either way (I think some get a fault code if the camshaft and crankshaft positions are too far out from each other (ie they've got it a tooth out)).

If diesel, use VAG COM to check diesel injection timing. The full instructions are in the manual or on Ross-Tech's website, but basically you need a warm engine, then go into basic settings on block 0 of the engine, and there's a button that lets you plot of graph of the injection timing. Choose your engine from a drop-down list, and it'll tell you whether it's in spec or not.

If it's the diesel injection timing that's wrong, then they won't need to take the belt off again to adjust it. You loosen the bolts on the injection pump pulley, and rotate the pump slightly compared to its pulley. Tighten bolts and measure again with VAG COM. Repeat until its in spec.

But as others have said, take it back & get them to sort it - you've paid to get it done, so they should be taking the risk if anything goes wrong trying to sort it.