Hi there and a Merry Christmas to all you helpful souls out there.
As you might deduce from my lighthearted tone I think I have had a break-through.
My Latvian crank position sensor arrived this morning. The output voltage check on the original one was inconclusive so I installed the new one but the response when I tried to start the car was the same as before. Intermittent firing but failure to catch and run. Also it seemed as though the ignition was over advanced as it tried to kick back.
I decided to check the timing.I had put off doing this because being an automatic it is very difficult to manually turn the engine.Anyway having got No1 piston to TDC I removed the cam covers expecting to see either No1 or No4 valves on the rock and they were clearly not where they should be.
The only possible conclusion is that the timing belt has jumped a few teeth---presumably at the time of the original failure to start. It is not broken and looks ok but is a bit slack.I am just hoping that there has not been any valve to piston contact.
As I had bought a complete set of belts to fit anyway it should be all downhill from here!!
Watch this space.
Ben
Ben,
Pleased to hear that the end might be in sight, although the belt isn't broken I wouldn't be surprised if you find the belt has a bare section with missing teeth as it sounds pretty much the same what happened to my Thema as I said in an earlier post, keeping fingers crossed for no valve damage.
Your mishapreminds me that when I bought my second auto it wasn't clear if the belts had been changed so I booked her in to have the belts and idler bearings done, half way to my garage (about 14 miles) the engine died with a smell of burning rubber, I manage to coast it into a layby and found that the counterbalance belt had come of, in the process it had immediatly got tangled up with the crankshaft sensor which snapped off, instanly killing the engine, but it was quick enough to stop the vavles getting bent, so while it cost me to have the head pulled to change the head gasket which was leaking oil at the front right corner (common) , I didn't have the extra expense of replacing bent valves.
Brian
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