Well I have had some problems with my local mechanic who replaced the timing chain, a short while after, about 3 km's, the car broke down, so I took off the head and had a look, the piston had hit the intake valve. Now I had the mechanic take another look and he said a small pin that holds the cam shaft sprocket to the cam shaft has broken and stopped the cam shaft from turning, however a member here said it broke because the piston hit the valve.

So I figured the best way would be to check the timing chain and see if that is off, and I have had a look in the manual and it says the small dot on the sprocket should line up with a plated link, but I can not see any plated links on the timing chain... Anyone have any advice on what I should be looking for?

the link will only line up when assembily once started the link will not line back up again

some chains dont have the dark links

best to remove no 1 plug and make sure piston it all the way to the top and take rocker cover off and make sure the rear 2 rockers are rocking. if this is right every thing should be sweet

the pin on cam should be in up possy and the cranks key should be up as well

Yeh mate... a new mechanic.

Somehow i could not see the pin stopping the camshaft rotation...

How did the car feel/run during those 3km's of operation?

I have the head off it at the moment, and I can tell you that the valve did hiot the piston.

The car ran fine for those 3km or so of opperation, but I can' see why it would run at all if the car started.

Oh yeah, that nut was tight, a complete ***** to get off... had to use the power of the starter motor to do it.

the nut being that tight does explain this event /// there is not that much load on the cam sprocket requiring that nut to be overtightened (the torque spec is 49 -58 nm thats not much)

now check for a bent valve and a damaged valve guide


I suspect the mechanic made the mistake while working on the car
the pin broke when first started
so the mechanic just rattled up the cam nut as tight as he could
gave you back the car hoping it would hold
about 3 km would be about right

So he had to take that sprocket off to work on the timing chain?

Stupid question. Why are you trying to fix the problem if your mechanic did the initial work? Doesnt he warrant his work? Or was it a mate that did the work for you?
If it was me i would have had the vehicle towed back to him and let him deal with it.

Regards