Re: Help! Dealer woes . . .

[zm@mhcnet.att.com (Zafer Mehmood [209])]

[stuff about newly replaced timing belt making noise deleted]

> I have put around 40 miles on the engine. Mostly city driving.
>Have I damaged anything?

Does the car start, run and accelerate as it did before you had the
timing belt replaced? If so, then the cam timing is okay and you've
not damaged anything. If they had put the belt back on wrong, i.e.,
if the timing was off a couple of teeth, then the car wouldn't run the
same and you run the danger of having the pistons hit the valves.

>Can the new Accesory belts they put on be re-used or will they have to put
>on new belts once they re-open the timing belt cover. (belts come off in
>order to remove cover, right?)
 
The accessory belts can be reused. These belts have to come off for
replacing the timing belt but the timing belt cover can be partially removed
easily (two inside hex 6 mm screws) to take a look without removing
the crank pulley or the accessory belts. Have the dealer take this cover
off to make sure belt is seated correctly and the timing marks line up.

My experience has been that when accessory belts are removed and replaced
(either new or old ones reused), the tension changes and this can cause
some squeaking or squeeling sounds that weren't there before. As long
as the belts are tensioned correctly, this isn't a cause for alarm. 
In fact, the noise you hear may very well be coming from one of the new
belts or the pulleys they drive and not the timing belt. When I had
the timing belt replaced in my '87 5000 TQ at the dealer last year,
I also noticed a whining noise afterwards. Turned out that the previous
owner (or his mechanic) had overtightened the alternator belt and this
had caused the alternator bearings to wear. When the dealer now retensioned
the belt to the correct (looser) tension, the bearing noise became apparent.
I ended up replacing the alternator with a Bosch-rebuilt unit after a few
months.

Hope this helps.

Zafer

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Zafer Mehmood				   AT&T Bell Laboratories
zm@mhcnet.att.com			   Murray Hill, NJ