Poo.

Car is in at Repco Belconnen having LPG fitted. The mechanic started it to move the car (the LPG is in) and BANG.

He's now found the tensioner broke, and before that found loose and missing bolts from when I got the timing belt done by Bega Mitsubishi (Taylor's Garage) in July last year.

I've checked the invoice - there was no new tensioner put in last year, something I didn't know needed doing but surely a Mitsubishi garage would have?

Repco are resetting the timing now (and adding a new tensioner!) and will test for compression before they strip down to remove the heads.

Bugger, and fingers crossed...

If a mitso dealer did the belt... and it's stuffed then they will (Or should) pay for all the damages...

Do you get the car serviced by mitso all the time or just that time??

Also... was the car at idle when it went bang??

Steve

tensioners are not part of a service. They should be recommended, but if memory serves me right, the are over $200 at mits, and most people say no. Loose bolts are another thing tho. Not the first time I have heard about this issue at a dealership

ouch

unfortunately, somehow i dont think you will be able to get mitsu to pay for the repairs / replacement tensioner - as they will surely say "how do we know that you havnt taken the car elsewhere and it was thier fault for not putting it back together correctly" - especially after a year or so's running.

they SHOULD be the ones paying for it - thats for sure.

when i got my timing belt changed last week, i expressly asked them to check and replace tensioner if required - which they didint change, but it noted down on my invoice that they checked it to see if it needed replacement.

I got away with it!

Cost me a new tensioner and a couple of hors labour :)

It actually let go while it was being cranked to start. Talk about lucky!

Still, not happy with Bega Mitsu...

Oh - if anyone wants to know how long a belt tensioner lasts, it's 126 174 km!

As a general thing. When you change the timing belt, you change the tensioner......

When I bought my car, which was serviced some 3000km before I bought it, took off from a set of lights, hit 5K and BANG.......there goes the alternator tensioner......left a nice mark on my lower control arm, and got to drive home on the battery alone lol

I had my belt done at 101,000 a couple of weeks ago.
In the 2 days beforehand there was a nice loud whirring noise on start up that went after maybe 10 seconds.
My mechanic said that the tensioner was on the way out, had a look when i collected the car, agreed, well worn out!!
Just think about it. car does 100,000 Kms, how many revs has the engine done in that time. Somewhere around 30,000,000!!!

This means that the bearings in the tensioners have also gone round that many times as well.
Gerry

Oh - if anyone wants to know how long a belt tensioner lasts, it's 126 174 km!


:bowrofl: :bowrofl:

I have done so many belts on these carsI could do these with my eyes closed :)

Years ago, the tenioner was not available aftermarket and through mits was near 300 bucks

These days, the entire kit aftermarket is only about $185 or so. Any responsible mechanic fitting a belt should know that you change the tensioner.

Another cause of this is often the mechanic does not have the correct tool to tension the belt and over tensions it, the water pump is usually the first victim but then the tensioner is the next part to say bye bye

Personally I think it may be a little hard to go the mits dealer as it will be very hard to prove that they did wrong, although we all know that they are really responsible.