hi,

got a 1998 1.5 LXI. just had a timing belt change at a local garage in north london.

since, the car does not seem to have the same acceleration. before, as soon as i touched the gas pedal, it would jerk you back in the seat. now, it seems as if the car is heavier.

[1] is it possible that the mechanic did not get the engine timing quite right?

[2] how can i check the timing of the engine myself (without having to go to the same garage or somewhere else)? i don't have a mechanic i can trust. so i prefer to do [2] myself.

it could be some other fault. but i need to eliminate the timing belt change as a potential fault before moving on.

please help!

cheers
gj

I'd say very possibly the timing may be a tooth out which would stuff up your performance. I can check cam timing procedure in my Haynes tonight. It's usually a fairly simple matter of lining up the relevant marks ,,,

hi smotter,
thanks for that. i don't have the haynes manual yet. looking forward to your reply.

cheers
gj

He he.

GOOD LUCK in finding a HAynes manual for the 94-98 BA 323F!!


I can sell you one that STATES it has info on the BA 323F..........:P:lol:

Hi Wai - I recommend the "323 & Protege" manual - Ref # 61015. It gives you lovely pics like this .....

[img]http://www.geocities.com/smotter.geo/Temp/CamTime.jpg[/img]

Hope this helps, gj ...

thanks mate!

in order to check the timing belt, would i have to jack the engine just as they did when changing the timing belt. or will it be possible to just remove the top and very the marks?

gj

When should the timing belt be changed?

i fink timing belts are every 50000 though dun hold me to that.

Arty

[quote="gj"]thanks mate!

in order to check the timing belt, would i have to jack the engine just as they did when changing the timing belt. or will it be possible to just remove the top and very the marks?

gj[/quote]

You don't need to jack the engine to reset the cambelt timing; only to fit it. That's 'cause the cambelt goes around the engine mounting, so you have to remove the mounting to fit the belt.

[quote="Mitch"]When should the timing belt be changed?[/quote]

See [url]http://www.club323f.com/ba/tuning/servicing/servicing.php[/url] for all relevant service intervals (4 Cyl & V6)

thanks smotter.

i'm going to buy the manual and check the timing. in case, the timing is off i can go back to the garage and present the facts.

are there other ways to check the timing apart from physically inspecting the the marks alignment?

gj

Not that I'm aware of ...

hi smotter,

i've ordered the manual but it's not here yet.

tomorrow i'm going to have a look at the timing belt marks.
hmmm ... the timing belt synchronises the movement of the piston and the opening and closing of the valves. right? hmmm .. am i talking rubbish here?

i've got the nice diagram you posted in the forum. smotter, can you briefly outline the procedure for verifying the marks.
what should i check? i align the marks and check what position the pistons and valves are? what should be their positions? which piston top, which valve close/open?

any help welcome.

cheers
gj

[quote="gj"]the timing belt synchronises the movement of the piston and the opening and closing of the valves. right? [/quote]
Yip.

Mark

[quote="gj"]i've got the nice diagram you posted in the forum. smotter, can you briefly outline the procedure for verifying the marks.
what should i check? i align the marks and check what position the pistons and valves are? what should be their positions? which piston top, which valve close/open?[/quote]

You have to work according to the position of the marks on the pulleys ...

hi smotter,

here's what we did:
[1] first we aligned the pulley where the auxiliary belt runs with the mark T on the engine (i think that's where the piston should be top).
[2] next we removed the top cover
[3] timing belt goes through three sprockets
[4] mark on bottom sprocket was aligned
[5] but the two timing marks on top sprocket should be aligned next to each other but they were not!
[6] aha! they were out by one tooth.
[7] now we had to align them and we did that as follows:
[i] aligned the dot on the left sprocket such that it is flushed horizontally with the engine.
[ii] then align the two timing marks

reassembled the lot and engine starts first time. my cousin who has mechanical know how helped me with this. all we had was your timing diagram.
however, we are not sure if in 7(i) and 7(ii) we did the right thing because although the two timing marks are next to each other, they are not horizontal. apart from the timing mark, there is one dot on each sprocket. we did not know what to make of these, so did as i described in 7(i) & 7(ii).

does the manual say more about these two dots on the sprockets (these are not the timing marks)?

the diagram that matched my engine was either 7.41(c) or 7.41(d). however, in 7.41(d) the marks are horizontal whilst in 7.41(c) they are at an angle as is the case on my car at the moment. however, the resolution of the diagram did not enable us to see the other dots on the sprockets and without the instructions we just did what seemed logical.

anyway, the car is running smoothly at the moment. it still has a problem of rev hunting when idling at low rev but it is not sluggish anymore.

i'm going to wait on the manual and then revisit the timing. next, we have to debug the rev hunting problem.

hmmm ... any offers of a free diagnostic code run please?

thanks smotter. if you find the time, enlighten me on those two dots on the sprockets. otherwise, you've been already of immense help.

gj

Glad to be of service, mate ! By the way, thanks to your success story, I ripped my engine apart this morning and found that mine was 1 tooth out too, and fixed it. It DOES make a big difference !!

Half way through ...
[img]http://www.geocities.com/smotter.geo/Temp/Cambelt.jpg[/img]

Support the motor while the mounting is removed ...
[img]http://www.geocities.com/smotter.geo/Temp/Support.jpg[/img]

you are right. it does make a difference. my car's acceleration is better.
i'm not going back to that garage again. i've decided to do all the mechanic stuff myself.

did you find those dots on your sprockets? any info on them?

cheers
gj