BUFF

Hopefully you guys can help me out here. I had a shop change my timing belt about 5000 miles ago. Two weeks ago, I was driving down the road and the timing belt suddenly slipped, the just engine quit running, so I had it towed back to the shop who changed the timing belt before. It took them 1.5 weeks to even diagnose that it was the timing belt (after I had suggested that was what I suspected). The compression checked out good, so they put the belt back on and test drove it today. Well, the belt slipped again when they were test driving it.

My question is, what would cause a belt to slip like that again? Could it be possible that they installed it wrong twice, or is there something else like camshaft binding, etc? By the way, the tensioner was replaced with the timing belt during the original service.

Sorry for the long post, but these guys are driving me crazy. Any suggestions would be helpful as I don't trust the competency of these mechanics any more. The only reason they are doing the work is because it is under warranty from the original job.

EDIT: Forgot to mention... 2004 1.7L non-vtec

doublej

sounds like the bottom washer was left off or installed on the backside of the crank pulley, or they arent tightening the belt correctly

BUFF

Update

Just got off the phone with them. They said the bolt that holds the cam pulley on is broken. What would cause the bolt to break? Did it break because the timing belt slipped or did the timing belt slip because the bolt broke?

These guys seem to think they can just slap on a new bolt and a new belt and the car will be good to go, but that doesn't get down the root cause of why the belt slipped in the first place. Advice?

BUFF

Just thinking out loud here... Is it possible that they over-torqued the bolt when they did the original service(they replaced the cam seals while they were in there) and for some reason the car went another 5k miles before throwing the belt?

Prodresurgence

I would have to see that broken bolt to believe that B.S. Who did the work, Honda?

BlueEM2

iTrader: (1)

Time to get a second opinion. Something here does not sound right. Though it is possible to overtorque any bolt and break it. The timing belt slipping would cause no damage to the bolt.

If the timing belt slipped too far. It is possible there is major internal damage to the engine.

BUFF

Just in case any one cares... They put a new belt on and test drove it, and they say it's running well. I had to haggle with them to convince them it was necessary to do a compression and leakdown test to be assured there is no valve damage. They are doing that tomorrow; hopefully it will be w/in specs and I can finally get my car back.

BlueEM2

iTrader: (1)

Great Glad to hear your back up and running. hopefully the tests come out okay!