Hi thought I would share another timing belt story as I can not stress enough the regularity we see problems in this area.

 

 

Start`s out as a series of calls from a distressed zed owner who cannot start his zed.

 

After a week or so of this and every possible combinations of advise I could give no go, to the guys credit he had a dammed good try but eventually it arrived on a trailer and was looked at yesterday with further work today.

 

Getting it started was not too much of a problem a new tps as the old one was giving some strange messages to the ecu, a new set of plugs and away she went.

 

However after 30 minutes of adjusting/ tuning by ear and via the conzult it just was not right somehow.

 

Once warm enough to perform a power balance check (took ages to warm up) showed up all the odd number cylinders as lower power than the even numbers! timing belt must be I thought.

 

After checking with the owner I stripped it out today and the as the pictures show (atachments 1,2,3,) the inlet cam on the left hand side was out and not shown was the main crank timing was out by one tooth also.

 

The picture of the thermostat housing also had a lot of sealant around it but no thermostat!!! no wonder it took ages to get warm!

 

Final picture shows the belt how it should be, incidently the back cover timing marks are only a rough guide this is not where the belt timing is actually set against but it does show up misaligned belts nicely.

 

A new belt, pump, inlet pipes and a dose of antifreeze has now restored this to a loverly purring engine, but it does not finish there, the viscous coupling was noticed to be turning very slowly and needs replacing, my guess is that the thermostat was removed to help stop the engine overheating due to a dodgy fan!

 

The story does however continue the belt was (is) fairly new, the sealant on the studs in one of the picture and the missing themostat all show someone has been in there and actually fitted the belt incorrectly!

 

The owner of the car has only had it 8 months and has had no work done so normally thats the end but by some amazing fluke a 2nd customer who was booked in to the workshop today was surprised to see me working on the afore mentioned car as he was the previous owner!!! he sold it to a dealer as it had a....yes you got it.. a starting problem.

 

Well what do know eh? seems like Mr Dealer sold a car with a known fault eh?

 

As the previous owner had not had a belt done the problem goes further back than him, so this means the car has been running like this for over 12 months! How typical of a zed engine to take this punishment and then be fine once the problem is corrected....what an engine!!

 

oh by the way sure your belts on right?????

 

 

 

Jeff @ Zedworld

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Um very interesting! Strange that the previous owner never got the car sorted to begin with.

Geoff.

Funny that,was thinking to myself about how much they can take,done over 500 miles this month on what seems to be a well fooked engine as you know Jeff,but it keeps goin and to be honest performs realy well(except when cold for first minute,bit of a rattle if ya know what i mean)and still great oil pressure!!well impressed!so much so that i am even going to the pub meet in it on sunday.(as for so called dealers,i say again 80% are just total shite when it comes to buyin a Z):D