Well i'm gonna come clean....i've killed my car

[John LE]

I decided to do my timing belt on saturday morning and everything was going nearly perfect. Got the old belt off, new water pump etc on and the belt tensioned up ready to turn over by hand.

Turned it over by hand, put in the locking key and turned it forward till the tool clicked and the tensioner pointer had moved. Re-adjusted the tensioner and turned over by hand again...put in the tool, turned to the stop again and all was fine with the tensioner.

We then decided to kick the engine over just to see everything was ok.....anyone notice what we (myself and my dad) forgot to do?

Yep we turned the engine over on the starter with the cam locking key still on place. Result is a chunk out of the cam shaft and a twisted woodruff key on the cam pully

It's been a bad week and it was such a silly schoolboy error

[chrisvectra]

oh crap thats not good

[tolly]

ouch..... sorry to hear that m8

[graham a]

not good John :cry:

[DAVIDD88]

Ouch

[ditchp]

shat the bed....what's the damage cost wise mate any idea ???

[John LE]

Best part of 400 quid bud, I won't be using the timing tools this time though


Camshaft is about 250 alone

[bigmac]

Bad news John hope it's not caused too much damage.

[Duncan]

Noooo! What a bummer! Hope you get it fixed soon John.

[John LE]

I'm hoping it's been confined to what we've found (the camshaft and pulley) I won't know if there is damage to the valves until I put it back together. The rockers all look ok though