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I hope he has CAA , gonna need a tow , when timing chain let’s go!
I don’t know why we would know about these codes. Or the consequences of ignoring them!!
Thank you all very much for your help and advice. PulpFriction could read my mind pretty well. It has 242,000 km on it now but the car still looks and drives mighty fine. I actually have changed timing belts on a Fiat X17 and Kia Spectra5 before but that was with access to my friend’s full range of tools and shop manuals and youtube videos. This timing chain job looks much more intimidating the other two jobs and I no longer have access to the tools and shop manual. I have watched a couple of videos on youtube and still don’t have much confidence, especially with my rather limited amount of hand tools. I will however look for a couple of quotes to determine if it would make economic sense to have a mechanic replace it. If not, I’d drive it to the ground and when it happens I’ll look for another car. Again, thank you very much for your help.
Hi guys, after watching a few clips, I now feel more confident and feel that I can tackle it myself but I need some help to clear up some questions in my mind first. My plan is that I’m going to pull the valve cover to do a visual check of the tightness and integrity of the chain as well as those guides. My question is if I turn the crank to TDC (by putting a screwdriver of some stick in cylinder 1 to verify the piston is at the top) and both cam marks lined up correctly, can I assume the crank mark also lined up correctly without having to go through all the trouble of removing the timing cover. And if they are all correct, can I safely assume the issue is caused by something else and not by the timing chain or any of those chain guides? If I still have to pull the timing cover to verify the crank mark, I might as well do the whole thing then.
If it comes to having to do the whole thing, should I beware of any fasteners that may give me access trouble or that need any special tools that I would need to order in before starting the job? I also watched a clip in which the guy said he couldn’t replace the 2 balance shaft chain sprockets without the engine out of the car. Is there any truth to this? Thanks!
The crankshaft pulley should be turned clockwise only! There’s a mark on it that lines up with a line on the front cover. Then you visually check the camshaft sprockets, intake mark at 2 o’clock exhaust at 10 o’clock
Align the notch on the cover side of the harmonic balancer pulley with this mark I circled in yellow You can use a pry bar or large screw driver to hold the pulley when you are ready to remove the bolt , afterwards the pulley just slides off the crankshaft snout. Here’s what you should see up top under the valve cover
A clearer sketch of the notch on the backside of the pulley and the alignment line.
Last edited by Oldblue; 10-20-2021 at 08:16 AM.
Reason: Housekeeping
You don't need to worry about TDC when you take it of. When you install it you put the crank on the mark and the 2 cam line up with the chain marks.
There are 3 marks on the chain and each sprocket has a mark to match.
They all move freely when the chain is off. Since it has an even number of cylinders the only thing that matters is the marks matching up.
If the crank mark is at TDC the #1 piston is at TDC, doesn't matter which stroke, then you move the cams to line up with the marks, that sets the stroke.
Trying to move the crank until all 3 marks line up could take all day. Don't panic, find your towel.
There are lands on the cam shafts to use for an adjustable wrench to hold them.
If the crankshaft keyway is at 12 o’clock , and you need to rotate either camshaft, with the timing chain off , turn the crankshaft so the keyway is at 3 o’clock to avoid the valves hitting the pistons, align the camshafts then you can turn the crankshaft back to 12 o’clock, very slowly and carefully. But do not do that with the timing chain on.
The crankshaft pulley should be turned clockwise only! There’s a mark on it that lines up with a line on the front cover. Then you visually check the camshaft sprockets, intake mark at 2 o’clock exhaust at 10 o’clock
Align the notch on the cover side of the harmonic balancer pulley with this mark I circled in yellow You can use a pry bar or large screw driver to hold the pulley when you are ready to remove the bolt , afterwards the pulley just slides off the crankshaft snout. Here’s what you should see up top under the valve cover
A clearer sketch of the notch on the backside of the pulley and the alignment line.
Report:
Hi all, I’ve been busy with work and now I finally got round to do this thing. Today I took off the valve cover and rotate the crank to align the marks and they all aligned correctly as shown in Oldblue’s post above. The chain is tight and all the guides look intact and secure. I only shone a flashlight down from the top to inspect them and tugged on the chain to check its tautness. I was reluctant to replace it since everything looks OK to me. So I just cleaned off some gunk (quite a bit) inside the valve cover and closed it back up. I started up the car and noticed the engine light was gone. I drove around for 10, 15 minutes and it did not come back. I will drive the car for half a day tomorrow to see if it’ll come back. If it does, I will go ahead and replace the chain. What do you make of the fact the engine light is gone for no apparent reason? I was also surprised to find it required almost no effort to rotate the engine with all spark plugs and drive belt in place. I wanted to remove the spark plugs for ease of turning the crank but I couldn’t even move the first plug. It was so tight that I feared I could break it off and leave half of it in there. Should I go for it and use whatever strength I have in my body? Thanks!
10-15-2021 | 02:04 AM
