cam belt help

[bam25]

hi there im new to this forum, so go easy on me!! i own a mk3 2ltr 8v golf cabriolet which ive owned for under a year great car but since owning it ive always thought it was under powered ( i now know why) My girlfriend was driving it yesterday and it lost all power and was misfiring, then stalled and wouldnt start again, but would turn over. Rac turn and diagnosed that the cam belt had shreaded, thus the timing thrown out. I would like to change the belt this weekend, ive changed a couple in the past but dont know how to set the timing up, can anyone help?

[spainy]

Hate to be the bearer of bad news but if car was running when belt snapped theres a good chance you need to do a little more than just change the belt.
I suppose if it happened at idle or was at low engine speed you could attempt to line up all the timing marks and refit a belt to see if the car still runs.
Not unusual for a valve or two to be bent if this is the case then you when need to remove the head and rebuild it and check for damage to the bottom of the engine to.

Good Luck

Spainy

[domross]

you may be needing to make a garage visit for this....theres a strong possibilty that the valves may be thrown/bent with a broken cam-belt...do a search for other thread regarding this...hope this isn't the case!!

[bam25]

i was under the impression that if the engine still turns over the vavles would be unaffected, i hope that all its done is slipped a couple of teeth and thrown the timing out (i hope) if that is the case do i just align the pulleys tothe marks and fit a new belt or is there something ive missed?

[bam25]

do i have to change the tensioner aswell?

[bam25]

please help

[lumoruk]

Garage charged me £73 to replace the belt and tensioner, and make some mechanic friends in case anything is broke in there.

[Andrew900]

the belt change should be fairly simple, there is timing marks above the crackshaft sprocket and below the camshalf gear. if you get a haynes manual it will tell you where these timing marks are, but if the car was running when the belt then there is a high chance your engine is deadified. youl know when the new belt is fitted, the engine will be makin a horrible noise and runnin rough

sorry, best of luck, hope this helps

[bam25]

thanks everyone for your help, changed the belt on monday the engine is running better than before timing is now bang on, also sprk plugs are in the right order, middle two were wrong way round. cheers

[Andrew900]

whew close call hehe, bet your feelin less nervous now hahaha.


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