A really close call !

[GTV-TB 315]

A friend of my turns up at my home in his Fiat Doblo that had started to sound odd and run bad some 5 km from me, and yes the engine sounded very odd and had no idle speed and lifting the bonnet revealed an engine on its way to escape through the right wheel arc.

 

The car had a timing belt service made 9/11 last year for big bucks at a place that should know how to do it  , the bolts for right engine mount was almost shredded through with about 2 mm of metal holding the bolts together so after nearly a year of driving the car they gave up and the engine mount collapsed so that the exhaust camshaft sprocket started to grind its way through the mount pushing the timing belt sideways on the sprockets ...... I wonder how many seconds there was left before the belt would have snapped.

[Gaincho 57]

       

[GTV-TB 315]

       

Yes the hair stood up on my neck and I got a cold feeling in my guts when I saw this.

[GTV-TB 315]

Markings that reveal how the timing belt replacement was carried out.

 

 

And yes the timing on intake camshaft was 1,5 teeth out.