When you go to a workshop to do this operation, tell the mechanic (and insist) to do the test below after the change was made. There is a way to know if the timing belt or chain is installed correctly. It often happens that mechanics put one tooth wrong, that small mistake does not damage your engine, but it will certainly cause the engine to not run properly. How to know that the timing belt or chain is installed correctly?Īs I said at the beginning of the article, installing the timing belt or chain wrong could be due to unforced errors of the mechanics. Often this will be triggered by the camshaft position sensor or crankshaft position sensor because these two sensors record signals that are not correct, leading the Check Engine Light to appear as error P0340 (camshaft position sensor) or P0335 (crankshaft position sensor). If the Electronic Control Unit (ECU) senses that the engine is not functioning properly, the “Check Engine Light” or MIL will appear on the dashboard. This means, that when the timing belt or chain breaks, valves are not hit by pistons, and the engine will not suffer any damage, it will just cause it to stall and after changing the timing kit, it will work as before. Non-interference engines are older models, especially petrol cars, which have a lower compression ratio. Interference engines are newer models and if the timing belt or chain brakes, then the pistons will hit the valves, causing important damage like bent valves and pistons. In the timing belt vs timing chain article I talked about interference engines and non-interference engines. The engine might not startĪnother cause of a timing belt or chain that is installed wrong. This results because of the bad air-fuel mixture that I talked about above. The number three symptom that an incorrectly installed timing belt or timing chain has is high fuel consumption. Whether the engine is petrol or diesel, the air entering the cylinder is compressed, but because the timing belt or chain is not installed correctly, the air in the cylinders comes out, and that means air volume is insufficient, the injector will spray the amount of fuel it normally knows that will lead to an improper air-fuel mixture, too much fuel and not enough air, and that will lead to engine power loss, and increased emissions. Most of the time it’s not something so bad as to completely damage the engine, but it’s enough to keep the intake valves open longer while the piston goes up and then the air in the cylinder comes out when it shouldn’t. This may or may not lead to disastrous effects on the car’s engine. If the camshaft does not transmit to the valves the opportune moment for their opening, to be more explicit, if the timing belt or timing chain is mounted one tooth left or one tooth right, then the valves will not open at the right time. The camshaft synchronizes the opening of the valves at the right time, in order to have the ideal engine compression, the ideal efficiency, and to obtain the engine power promised by the car manufacturer. Here I will go into further details on power loss in correlation with the valves. This is usually the first symptom that appears and that can tell you that you have a timing belt or chain wrongly incorrectly installed. This happens because the valves do not close at the proper timing. You will notice that the engine operating sound is not as usual and changed, or another noise might appear. How to know that the timing belt or chain is installed correctly?.Today we will talk about possible signs of an incorrectly installed timing belt or timing chain. On the other hand, there are also unforced errors of mechanics that forget to do just one simple step, leading to incorrect timings in the engine, and to possible damage. Sometimes we make mistakes in choosing the right workshop for this kind of operation that requires some skills. If you’re interested in the differences between timing belts and timing chains you can read the article I wrote about them.īut what if the timing belt or timing chain was installed wrong? And, for this operation to be done correctly, you need to go to a respected and authorized car workshop, so as to not have unpleasant surprises later. There is no doubt that almost all drivers know that the timing, either belt or chain, is an extremely important car part for the engine, and it needs to be changed at some mileage number or a certain amount of time.Īlthough this change is not made often, it needs to be done for the engine to run properly for a long time.
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