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Registered
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: Al Ain, United Arab Emirates
Posts: 7
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Is this possible (cam jammed by bolt)?
Wow, I've had incredibly bad luck with my '86 951. The latest:
Driving it home after having some work done, including timing belt changed, the car suddenly lost compression and stopped running. Took it back to the shop. Timing belt shredded. Valves probably damaged. Shop manager says will take responsibility for the rebuild if it was their fault. Inspecting mechanic says he found a bolt (same one that's used to fasten the cam cover) jammed between the cam housing and a cam lobe. However, there were no bolts missing, so this one was extra, and must have been left in there during a previous head gasket job (which happened to be at a different shop). My question: Is that physically possible? Could one of those bolts have been dropped in the cam housing, above the cam lobe, and stayed there for more than a year without causing any problems, until this happened? I'm skeptical. Tell me what you think. (I trust the shop manager, but I don't necessarily trust all of his mechanics.) Jeff |
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11-08-2002, 08:39 PM
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Registered
Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Posts: 523
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Unbelievable...They tried to tell you a spare bolt was in your housing for a year and, all of a sudden, came loose causing this catastrophic damage...and it was just a coincidence that they performed the same work, removing the same bolts, and then the damage happened...
Bull$hit...More than likely the tech, and in this case I use the title loosely, dropped a bolt in there and couldn't find it so he (she) replaced it with another thinking it wasn't in the housing... In this case you can't really call it bad luck but bad workmanship...The shop should defintely cover all the repairs and charge you nothing...Don't take No for an answer...I would have snapped especially when they tried to say it wasn't their fault... This is an example of exactly why I do my own repairs... Best of Luck and please keep us posted. |
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11-09-2002, 07:56 AM
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Registered
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: Al Ain, United Arab Emirates
Posts: 7
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Well, actually, it was a different shop (call it shop #2) that did the head gasket work (about a year ago), so shop #1 blaming the timing belt's disintegration on this bolt jamming the cam, well, it strikes me as a convenient way to shift the blame onto someone else.
Shop #2 (who I had look at the damage before sending it back to shop #1) claims that the problem was that the timing belt tensioner was not properly tightened when shop #1 did the timing belt job. So to clarify my question, is it actually possible that the bolt could have stayed in the cam housing for a year, after shop #2 replaced the head gasket? Or is this a transparent ploy by shop #1? Cheers |
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11-09-2002, 08:10 PM
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Registered
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Jacksonville, FL
Posts: 601
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MikeB answered your question-
Mechanic dropped YOUR bolt and couldn't find it so just replaced. Raise hell and get your engine rebuilt! |
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11-21-2002, 06:14 PM
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Registered
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Cincinnati
Posts: 74
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The bolts cannot make their way into the oil drain passages with the cam in the tower, so no, it was not in there for very long.
Yea, it is very possible for the bolt to wedge itself between the cam and the housing. Don't ask how I know, but keep track of all the bolts you remove if you plan on replacing them with new hardware. Your description of how it went dead is exactly how mine was when I shot the bolt into the side of the cam tower. I would raise hell. I beat myself up good when I did it, and your mechanic should as well. Man the things I have learned since I was a kid. |
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11-28-2002, 09:59 AM
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