Wel... Time for a new engine (more than likely) :(

I replaced the timing belt on Saturday, and everything went fine with that. Had it running Sat night, and all as sweet.

Driving home from a party Sat night, and the power steering belt decided it would be a good idea to shred itself. And somehow, a piece managed to get behind the timing belt cover, and into the timing gears. This caused the timing to slip, and the crank ended up being about half a turn out of time :(

The car is going down to a mechanic later on tonight, but my theory is that a piston has made friends with a valve, and knocked it out a little, and now there is a loud tapping noise when the car's running.

I'm thinking about going for a 3.5L if the repair/replacement bill of the 3.0L is too much, but Dad says straight out no...

So yeah... That's where I'm at now... Looking at new engine probably. :cry:

dammmm thats no good :doubt:

if u wanna upgrade to the 3.5lt would be more expensive, gotta get different headers, different ecu.

u could pick up a running engine for around $600-$1000

Mate, one tooth will not do this, mine did a similar thing a few years ago and even though yours is the S4 motor this will not make a difference.

Get the belt timing corrected and you should see it will run fine. I would be very surprised if one tooth could make the difference to the point of the valves getting bent.

If not, I have a 3.0 here you can have cheap or I also have heads as well.


dammmm thats no good :doubt:

if u wanna upgrade to the 3.5lt would be more expensive, gotta get different headers, different ecu.

u could pick up a running engine for around $600-$1000

Not really, if you can get the 3.5, I can see no reason at all that you can not use a UNI chip as the ECU is not keyed into the engine number......you also then have the benefit of the uni chip and the ability to do some proper tuning.

The Headers are identical if you have pacemakers, if std the difference is only about 8mm in deck height from memory

I've had it running again, and there's a loud ticking noise in there :(

So you're saying that the 3.5 should just plug straight into the hold, turn the key, and no ECU programming required?? :shock:

I have pacemakers so that shouldn't be a prob with the 3.5 I don't think...

Ticking sound could be a lash adjuster, if you have a ticking sound a bent valve would not cause this.

To be honest, I would investigate things further as far as compression tests go etc before I assumed that the engine was damaged.

How is the car performing in general after the belt has been reset?

I've only had the car running for about 15 secs after it's all back together jsut to make sure it does, cos when it first happened, it would turn over, and then 'lock up'. ie: It would jsut stop turning over.

I think this may have been due to a piece of belt getting stuck in around the timing gears though, but I'm not game to run it too much in case it does more damage.

lol this is why you should get a mechanic to do these types of jobs to start with either the belt wasnt on properly or it was too tight ...just think if a mechanic did the job thay would be the ones putting the new motor in for free, couple of hundred for mechanic to do the t belt not couple thousand for u to do a motor. :nuts:

lol this is why you should get a mechanic to do these types of jobs to start with either the belt wasnt on properly or it was too tight ...just think if a mechanic did the job thay would be the ones putting the new motor in for free, couple of hundred for mechanic to do the t belt not couple thousand for u to do a motor. :nuts:

Try $800 for the mechanic to do a timing belt... Oh and wait!! Dad is a qualified mechanic... :gtfo:

It was nothing to do with the timing belt... The power steering belt decided that it'd seen enough days, and shred itself. When the belts were off I inspected them and they were all fine.

So yeah, time to get off your high horse ;)

and why didnt you or your dad know that it needed replacing????well it must of been fitter wrong or had been over tightened think this way when i do timing belts i replace the t belt and accerory belts for this reason if a t belt does 100000km may as well do the other 3 at the same time they are made out of the same @#$$ and have done the same kms

Yeah, that happened to me when I had my timing belt changed. the power steering belt let go a day after, so took it back to mechanic and they changed it, paid for it as they said it probably needed replacing anyway. Next day broke again, took it back and they decided to have a proper look, took all belts and pulleys off, but could not figure what the problem was. So put it all back together, new belt no cost and sent me off, telling me to come back if it happened again. It never did, so I assumed that when the timing belt was changed, something was not put back properly, but the second time it was. Who know's, maybe the mechanic had a hangover from the weekend.

That is OK, Magnus thinks he is a Mechanic, he is not a mechanics foot (being polite here) and Magnus, how about you take your :nuts: and stick it in your ear :D

Mate, I am more than happy to have a look at it. I know that your pa is a mechanic and I am sure a great mechanic but I do now Magna's inside out and would be happy to give an opinion.

If you have had a valve tap a piston but in a minor way, it may be ok as the lash adjuster has some give and it will have bled it dry. Have seen this happen on a second gen (mine and the engine runs fine now)

Only draw back with yours is the valve stems are thinner, thing is you can not do any more damage as far as valves go, lash adjuster is easy to replace if this is the problem.

Let me know how you go mate.

Cheers for the offer mate! :D I'll get back to you on that one.

How can it not do anymore damage? What is this lash adjuster you're talking about?? :confused:

If you have a bent valve, you have corrected the problem that caused it, it will not bend any more so to speak by running the engine.

The lash adjuster may come good after a few minutes of running, I would probably remove the offending rocker cover and just to a visual inspection

The lash adjuster is the hydrolic lifter