Very, very lucky.

[Little Pete]

A customer called in complaining of a strange noise under the bonnet. We had a quick look and saw what looked like a tooth off the timing belt on the lower crossmember so we pushed it into the workshop.
When we stripped the covers off today, a load of teeth fell out and we found this:





It’s the same at the crankshaft, no teeth around the gear! The engine was running and we’ve been able to turn it over to time it up. The cam was a tooth out. Unbelievable!

Edited by Little Pete on Tuesday 3rd March 10:55

[Steve_D]

Customer needs to go buy a lottery ticket with luck like that.

Steve

[Higgs boson]

Little Pete said:

The cam was a tooth out. Unbelievable!

Edited by Little Pete on Tuesday 3rd March 10:55

'must've been running a bit rough, too!

[Little Pete]

Higgs boson said:

'must've been running a bit rough, too!

The idle was a bit erratic as you would expect but as soon as we saw the tooth we switched it off!

[CrutyRammers]

Impressive!

[Little Pete]

This is the belt as removed.

[Higgs boson]

The title of your post was apposite.

[Chris32345]

Was the customer a I don't need a timing belt changed type?

[Little Pete]

Chris32345 said:

Was the customer a I don't need a timing belt changed type?

They are a new customer with a small fleet of vans. They were unhappy with their previous repairer, so all vans are now booked in with us for service and timing belt changes.

[stevieturbo]

Little Pete said:

They are a new customer with a small fleet of vans. They were unhappy with their previous repairer, so all vans are now booked in with us for service and timing belt changes.

Really, if they have documented receipts for such work done....trading standards should be all over that st. There are far too many cowboys and butchers in the motor trade getting away with ripping people off, which seriously damages the trade in general.

Although that said, many fleet operators are just as bad, as they will want the absolute bare minimum done to their stuff so they have to pay as little as possible. !

[Little Pete]

stevieturbo said:

Really, if they have documented receipts for such work done....trading standards should be all over that st. There are far too many cowboys and butchers in the motor trade getting away with ripping people off, which seriously damages the trade in general.

Although that said, many fleet operators are just as bad, as they will want the absolute bare minimum done to their stuff so they have to pay as little as possible. !

The company owner has raised the issue with the previous repairer- whilst telling them they wouldn’t be looking after any more vans-and their defence was they hadn’t changed any belts because they hadn’t been asked to!! I suspect a lack of ability is closer to the truth.
Totally agree with you about the cowboys in the trade, little wonder it’s got such a poor reputation.

[DVandrews]

Had a similar situation with a Caterham race engine from Italy, ran for 10 seasons without attention to the cambelt, the owner claimed he didnt know it had one. Not surprisingly it failed and bent/snapped a few valves, the dust in the cambelt cavity is rubber from the belt.. all the teeth were undermined and a pile of them was nestling at the bottom of the cambelt void. All the teeth at the lower pulley were detached and this is what finally caused the failure.








Dave

Edited by DVandrews on Thursday 5th March 20:26

[Little Pete]

I hope you did that under warranty Dave!

[DVandrews]

Little Pete said:

I hope you did that under warranty Dave!

The engine was originally built in 2002 and it came here broken in 2019 and I’m pretty sure it was n the same cambelt, so it was *just* out of warranty.. .

[Little Pete]

DVandrews said:

The engine was originally built in 2002 and it came here broken in 2019 and I’m pretty sure it was n the same cambelt, so it was *just* out of warranty.. .