not realy a classic skoda problem but sort of related (vag)brother in law serviced his vw golf 1.4 petrol,when he removed the sparkplugs he noticed the holes were full of oil so decided to replace the rocker cover gasket,to get the cover off he had to remove the timing belt,he marked the position and slid it off the top pulley,local auto factors dont list a gasket so he used a sealant,put every thing back together but it now struggles to start and is realy lumpy,i plugged in my scan tool and we found one fault

00518...kwp 1281...throttle position sensor (g69) sporadic open/short circuit to positive

he didnt touch this and the code might have already been there (car bought from dodgy dealer last oct)i think the timings out but the marks seam to be ok....any thoughts

I reckon the cam timing is a tooth out.

If you disturb the belt like that, you really need to put a new one on, and he only made one timing mark AIUI. You need to set the timing marks on crank, cam, and separate fuel and/or ignition pulleys if the engine has them.

thats what i thought....we did try to move the belt one tooth either way but made no difference.ran but lumpy,iam not too sure if it has a fuel and/or ignition pulley as we cant undo the crank nut to remove the pulley and belt cover...i set the timing on the crank by using the mark on the flywheel and used the two holes in the cam pulleys aligned with the holes in the cam/rocker cover casing, making sure piston was at tdc using a length of wire in the plug hole....looks like we need to remove the crank pulley...its RFT

thanks for your thoughts....

went back to see my brother-in-law tonight after thinking about his car for a couple of days,on monday it sounded as if it was only running on 3 cylinders so asked if he had tryed starting the car when the timing was out,his answer was ......yes......i had my compression tester with me as i thought this might be the case

results

1..............225

2..............170

3..............225

4..............000

not taken the head off yet,but its not going to be pretty..........tryed to cheer him up a bit,at least we know the timmings correct now as we started it with no4 plug lead disconnected and ran the same

i'm guessing by your description it's the late 16v one with the roller rockers under the camshafts and the twin timing belts setup?

you need to get that pulley off and do it properly, the mark on the flywheel is an ignition timing mark, there's a special 2 pronged tool for inserting into the holes in the cam pulleys (vw tool T10016) and the pins engage with the holes in the camshaft carrier casting, the crank pulley has a chamfered edge on one tooth which lines up with the 'fin' on the oil pump casting you havn't got a hope in hell of tensioning the main timing belt without taking the lower cover off.. there is also another special tool for counter holding the aux belt pulley (it's kinda like a circular tube with 4 prongs on with a long handle) to undo the crankshaft pulley bolt but you can get away without it but you will still need to figure out a way of preventing the engine from turning (you could remove the starter motor and get an assistant to jam a large screwdriver in the flywheel ring gear to hold the engine still

pic for your reference, yours will look slightly different to this because this is a 1.6 version with variable valve timing but everything else is the same except for the top left pulley (engine is not at TDC in this pic).. your's will also be an aluminium block rather than a cast iron one in the pic.

edit: you could just insert 2 drill bits into the cam alignment holes if you are desperate i suppose

i'm guessing by your description it's the late 16v one with the roller rockers under the camshafts and the twin timing belts setup?

you need to get that pulley off and do it properly, the mark on the flywheel is an ignition timing mark, there's a special 2 pronged tool for inserting into the holes in the cam pulleys (vw tool T10016) and the pins engage with the holes in the camshaft carrier casting, the crank pulley has a chamfered edge on one tooth which lines up with the 'fin' on the oil pump casting you havn't got a hope in hell of tensioning the main timing belt without taking the lower cover off.. there is also another special tool for counter holding the aux belt pulley (it's kinda like a circular tube with 4 prongs on with a long handle) to undo the crankshaft pulley bolt but you can get away without it but you will still need to figure out a way of preventing the engine from turning (you could remove the starter motor and get an assistant to jam a large screwdriver in the flywheel ring gear to hold the engine still

pic for your reference, yours will look slightly different to this because this is a 1.6 version with variable valve timing but everything else is the same except for the top left pulley (engine is not at TDC in this pic).. your's will also be an aluminium block rather than a cast iron one in the pic.

edit: you could just insert 2 drill bits into the cam alignment holes if you are desperate i suppose

thanks tom,thats excellent,iam pretty sure i can make the tools required as brother-in-law is on a tight

budget,hence doing the service himself,top of the piston looks ok through the plug hole so hoping to get away with inlet/exhaust valve on no4 and parhaps just the 1 valve on no2,also a gasket set new belts and head bolts all for hopefully under £100......expensive service.....thanks for your help.

quick update...went to take the head off yesterday,when i removed the rocker cover i noticed 3 rockers on the exhaust valves were dislodged 1 on number2 and 2 on number 3.they were resting on top of the valve springs and with the cover on must have compressed the spring and opened the valves all the time hence no compression.popped them back on refitted the cover and tested the compression again and all seams well,picked up a new belt on the way home and also a new tensioner as it was cracked and will be putting it back together today,£36 in total could have been a lot more.......

quick update-update....been supplyed with the wrong belt every thing back in place timing marks aligned ready to accept new belt on tuesday....got the crankshaft nut un-done with wheels on full lock,socket, long extension resting on axle stand an old torque wrench with peice of scaffold slipped over handle,hand brake on, in gear mate with foot on brake,body weight on scaffold tube whilst tapping end of extension bar with hammer.....thats rft........

another update update update....picked up the timing belt on the way home,fitted tonight turned the key and away she went got that out of the way..service on my pick-up next......