There's 'er problem I hate Volkswagen part 2

[MildredHubble]

Na, I'm still sticking to my guns about metal shrinkage.
My experience as a machinist and a mech engineer tells me that is bunk.
The pulleys look to be sintered in nature, likely a steel composition which would have nearly the same shrink rate as the fasteners.
Grab a magnet if you want to prove it.
Aluminum would never hold up to the wear they would encounter, nor would most zinc alloys.
You had a mechanical failure.
If the fasteners were loose, that sounds to be it.

I still won't rule out a stretched belt, weak tensioner and the cold exacerbating the problem.

But I'm not sure really what else could cause it. If the belt had slipped due to being slack then the pulleys would still be in their correct position, they've literally rotated. Unless I'm missing something?

The only other thing that seemed loose was the tensioner retaining nut. I just got the wrench on it and barely pushed it and it came straight off. But that being said, the belt is in good condition and wasn't loose before I slackened off the tensioner. So while the retaining nut wasn't tight the tensioner seemed to be doing it's job.

It's entirely possible that the bolts weren't as tight as they should be, add a freezing cold snap and maybe that's just enough for them to slip.

One thing I should probably mention is that whoever last worked on this car was a BIG fan of copper slip. They had done dumb things such as copper slip the wheel studs and then torqued them up so high the damn things wouldn't come off. It broke the security stud.

I had to cut one wheel off in the end and once I had it off, the bolts had cut deep into the wheel. They only came off after using a large lump hammer! The other side nearly broke the guy's impact wrench when he fitted new tyres. He was literally at the point of giving up and telling us the bad news. He said he'd never had a wheel nuts so seized in place.

So maybe some copper slip came into the equation? I can't explain how the pulleys moved unless they were loose or they came loose?

To be clear, I'm not being argumentative, if there's something I need to learn about what caused this I would rather learn about it rather than be ignorant about it.

 

[Lysholm]

I hate to be a naysayer but I don't think Those cam bolts are the reason the car won't run. I mean, if they were loose, wouldn't they be at the other end of their adjustability? If not, the rust leads me to believe they've been in their current position for a long time - meaning the car was running like that before it quit.

No doubt the timing belt needed serviced, and you are doing necessary repairs in there. I'm just worried you'll get that fixed and the car still won't start.

 

[Outdated]

Metal shrinkage does happen.

Back in the early 90s I stripped the timing gear on my Holden 186, an incredibly reliable engine. I bought a replacement timing gear kit and set about doing this myself, it’s nothing terribly difficult. Normally.

The larger lower gear, made of something that looks like waxed cardboard, came off no problems, but I couldn’t shift the upper steel gear. I bent the puller. Out of desperation I phoned on of those mobile mechanics.

I was unemployed at the time, I told the mechanic that I didn’t know what he charged per hour but all I had was $50, and all I wanted him to do was get that top gear off, I would do the rest myself, and gave him the $50. The poor bastard was there for hours.

He also bent a puller. Eventually he started heating it up with the oxy acetylene torch and cutting in to it with a hammer and cold chisel. He had to chop ¾ of the way through to the shaft before it let go. He said that the shaft must be swollen, but the new gear went straight on with just a few light taps.

The original gear had shrunk on to the shaft.

 

[MildredHubble]

I hate to be a naysayer but I don't think Those cam bolts are the reason the car won't run. I mean, if they were loose, wouldn't they be at the other end of their adjustability? If not, the rust leads me to believe they've been in their current position for a long time - meaning the car was running like that before it quit.

No doubt the timing belt needed serviced, and you are doing necessary repairs in there. I'm just worried you'll get that fixed and the car still won't start.

It's a possibility that it still won't run. And of course they could have been on the move for a while. But as I say, the problem is so similar to two videos I've watched on the subject and adjusting them back fixed the problem. Again, if the cold has any effect at all on the retaining pressure of the bolts the timing could have finally reached the point where it's just too far out of spec.

They didn't put up much of a fight when I loosened them off either. That could be by design but I doubt it. Normally when things are torqued down properly I find they take considerable more force to move than they did. It was more like they had been just "nipped" up.

They were hard against the limit of the adjustment aperture. They were clearly not in that position to begin with. So it's hard to be sure why. If it's not the cold, then they can't have been done up tight enough. Or it's just an inevitable problem that occurs with these cars?

I have done an engine swap once and once it was in the car I started it up and the valves were dancing everywhere. It sounded worse than the engine I took out!

I assumed bad valve clearances so I took off the valve cover and started checking with a feeler guage. Then my sleeve just happened to catch one of the camshaft retaining clamps and I saw the whole thing move! So I torqued it down and the engine was fine! It also looked like it had recently had at least a top end rebuild.

I went I to work the day after and told everyone the story. The most popular theory was "Mechanic 1 rebuilds the engine and is distracted by something. Mechanic 2 gets asked to finish up the job but doesn't realise that the camshaft isn't torqued down properly. They finish up, start the engine, all seems good. Then I buy the engine, it gets jiggled and bumped a bit. The camshaft comes lose and the engine rattles and wheezes, then I find the problem and fix it."

It could be something as simple as that and the cold is just a coincidence. Hopefully I wil have an answer tomorrow though

 

[MildredHubble]

Metal shrinkage does happen.

Back in the early 90s I stripped the timing gear on my Holden 186, an incredibly reliable engine. I bought a replacement timing gear kit and set about doing this myself, it’s nothing terribly difficult. Normally.

The larger lower gear, made of something that looks like waxed cardboard, came off no problems, but I couldn’t shift the upper steel gear. I bent the puller. Out of desperation I phoned on of those mobile mechanics.

I was unemployed at the time, I told the mechanic that I didn’t know what he charged per hour but all I had was $50, and all I wanted him to do was get that top gear off, I would do the rest myself, and gave him the $50. The poor bastard was there for hours.

He also bent a puller. Eventually he started heating it up with the oxy acetylene torch and cutting in to it with a hammer and cold chisel. He had to chop ¾ of the way through to the shaft before it let go. He said that the shaft must be swollen, but the new gear went straight on with just a few light taps.

The original gear had shrunk on to the shaft.

I've had this occur on suspension strut top mounting retaining nuts. In the end I had to heat and cold chisel them out. I have a photo somewhere I think of the result and it looked like the thread was tapered. But I don't think it was supposed to be like that. I was so amazed I took a photo to send to my girlfriend at the time, who didn't have a clue what I was going on about lol!

I'm no expert but I've certainly seen some interesting things happen with metal. One example would be the oft held view that stainless steel can't rust. I have a stainless steel spoon in the kitchen somewhere that disproves that! So unless it's not actually stainless steel (which is of course highly possible) or eventually it can corrode if the conditions are right.

Another fun metal "anomaly" is the ability for alloy wheels to knit with steel surfaces. I had to change the wheels on the back of my Hyundai. I only had an hour before work so I had to be quick. All 4 studs removed and the wheel just sat on the hub not budging. I kicked it with both feet at the bottom with all my strength. It was stuck fast, I lifted it high in the air on the jack and dropped it about 2 and a half feel. The wheel just stayed on.

I tried it again and again. No dice! I reversed it into a curb a few times and nope! I drove it round the block a few times and it just refused to budge. In the end I borrowed my neighbour's sledge hammer and hit the bottom of the tyre like an old timey rail road worker. After about ten blows (a couple of them missing and hitting the rim) the wheel reluctantly came off!

Then the reason became clear! Good old copper slip! They had smothered the face of the hub with it (previous owner) and when you combine that with rain, snow and salt the copper slip causes a reaction between the steel and the alloy wheel, almost welding it in place. Needless to say I just changed the one wheel that day and removed as much copper slip as possible!

I don't think I've encountered many times while working on cars where I've thought copped slip was a good idea. Maybe on something inside the cabin etc or things that aren't exposed to the elements. Maybe in some climates it's fine but to be honest it's been the bane of my life many times!

 

[Forest Cat]

I tried it again and again. No dice! I reversed it into a curb a few times and nope! I drove it round the block a few times and it just refused to budge.

Driving the car around the block a few times to get the wheel to come off it, that's brave. That's a brave approach.

 

[Nitro]

Ok, start from scratch.
How did this all come about?
The stuff you claim was fretted, where was it?
If it was the three retaining nuts on the gears, it would go out of time.
If that was the case, start there and place them back into their correct positions.
A repair manual would be very helpful in that situation.
If they are intended to be adjusted, there will be a defined procedure to put them in their proper positions.

Piss-poor cam timing will cause poor performance and ultimately hard starting especially if the engine is frigid cold..

I'm not sure I was aware that the timing belt had in fact been out of position.
Simply placing marks on the pulleys will only guarantee that they go back in the same position they were in at teardown.
All engines will have cam and crank gear timing marks on them.
On performance builds, we degree our camshafts so we know exactly what our cam timing is. We have offset bushings to correct any minor discrepancies from parts that are machined within tolerances but not always at their optimum.
I suspect that the adjustments on your V-dub gears serve the same purpose.
Diesel engines with mechanical injector pumps rely on exacting timing in order to run properly.
Out of time, out of the picture
Blueprinting an engine is an attempt to place all of the dimensions as close as possible to the original design due to that reason.
One tooth out will more often than not will still start but run poorly.
Some of the Mopar 4 banger scrap we worked on had a habit of putting themselves out of time to the retarded side when installing a new belt.
That was due to the slack in the belt.
The solution was to intentionally put it one tooth advanced so when the belt was tensioned it would "correct" itself.

Valve spring pressure was always a factor as it acted on the tappets.
Some engines now require a holder or jig to prevent that from happening.
If not used, they will push the cam out of position as the tappet, cam follower or lifter (pick your favorite name for them) forces the cam to rotate.

Anti-seize, no matter what type will always create an over-torqued condition for dry or lightly oiled spec'd fasteners. When you exceed the elasticity of a bolt by stretching it to much, it will in fact be looser because you have over stretched it.
Think about the Slinky toy you might have had as a kid. If your pulled it too far, you no longer had a Slinky, you had a piece of crap that you tossed into the trash.
Same goes with a bolt.
Friction or a lack of it has a profound effect on fastener torque.
The grade markings on a fastener are very important in order to get the correct stretch on the bolts.
I watched ding-dongs replace all of the grade 5 chassis bolts on their rides with what they considered the superior grade 8s.
Bad move, grade 8 has a higher tensile strength but has a limited shear strength due to the hardness of the material that makes it a badass spring..
The grade 5 stuff won't pull down as tight as the grade 8, but it's softness will tolerate side shock much better.

When we build high performance engines, we measure stud or bolt stretch instead of relying on wrenches that measure rotating torque for that very reason.
Torque to yield fasteners are all the rage now, where the bolts are stretched to their maximum and have to be discarded after they are disassembled.
Towards the end of when I was involved in them, cylinder head bolts were torqued evenly to a very light spec with a torque wrench to flatten the head them were final torqued in degrees of rotation which was a superior way of maintaining the right stretch.
Plus it will aid in an assembly dismantling itself.
It is mostly used in harsh environments where the effects of corrosion will weld the fasteners together.
If I can find it, I will share with you a chart that shows the effects of all types of lubricants used on fasteners.

As I recall, the rotating torque spec, of a dry fastener such as a lug bolt will be nearly 50% higher than one with an anti-seized one.

 

[Nitro]

Metal shrinkage does happen.

Back in the early 90s I stripped the timing gear on my Holden 186, an incredibly reliable engine. I bought a replacement timing gear kit and set about doing this myself, it’s nothing terribly difficult. Normally.

The larger lower gear, made of something that looks like waxed cardboard, came off no problems, but I couldn’t shift the upper steel gear. I bent the puller. Out of desperation I phoned on of those mobile mechanics.

I was unemployed at the time, I told the mechanic that I didn’t know what he charged per hour but all I had was $50, and all I wanted him to do was get that top gear off, I would do the rest myself, and gave him the $50. The poor bastard was there for hours.

He also bent a puller. Eventually he started heating it up with the oxy acetylene torch and cutting in to it with a hammer and cold chisel. He had to chop ¾ of the way through to the shaft before it let go. He said that the shaft must be swollen, but the new gear went straight on with just a few light taps.

The original gear had shrunk on to the shaft.

I get that, but you are talking about a thousanths of an inch or so, not a gear getting so small a timing belt jumps time.

 

[MildredHubble]

Driving the car around the block a few times to get the wheel to come off it, that's brave. That's a brave approach.

Well the wheel nuts were put on loosely to prevent a catastrophe! But I was rapidly running out of options and that particular wheel had a slow puncture so after a nightshift the last thing you want to come out to us a flat tyre and no way to inflate it lol! But boy was it stuck! I could have probably driven the 40 or so miles to work without any wheel nuts! But I wasn't feeling that brave! Lol!

 

[Outdated]

Another fun metal "anomaly" is the ability for alloy wheels to knit with steel surfaces.

Electrolysis. Putting two different metals together creates an electrical charge, anyone with the old amalgum fillings in their teeth knows about this in a very personal way. If a fork or spoon touches the filling you get a painful shock.

It was a common problem in the print industry, frameworks are made of soft alloys but all the bolts are made of high tensile steel, the purpose is so that if there is a sudden shock to the machinery all the bolts shatter instead of damaging the frame. We had to use extension bars on all the allen keys and exert huge amounts of force to crack them, and when they did let go you'd often see an electrical spark jump to the frame.

Essentially, the two different metals weld themselves together over time.

 

[MildredHubble]

I get that, but you are talking about a thousanths of an inch or so, not a gear getting so small a timing belt jumps time.

Ok, maybe I'm not doing a good enough job of describing how this cam system seems to work. I don't have much fondness for this car. I really had high hopes that it wouldn't be a basket case like the last Passat.

So this is what seems to be the case from my (admittedly) hasty jumping in and trying to cut a few corners as my back simply can't take the punishment this car dishes out.

The cam shaft pulleys seem to have some sort of, best I can describe it off the top of my head, a plate that has a limited amount of ability to slip withing the pulleys when those three bolts are loose. This I've confirmed is to adjust the timing.

If the three bolts are loose the camshaft will rotate until the back plate with the bolts in it hits the limit of the adjustment apertures and then the pulley will move round. So there is a degree of slip possible on the pulleys.

So in a nutshell imagine being able to hold the belt and pulleys in position and then rotate the camshafts to the desired position, then lock them in place.

The belt could stay put and hold the pulleys in place, but the camshafts could shift out of position by a small amount. At worst, to the limit of the possible adjustment.


I know that the timing may very well be off, but that's less of a concern to me because that's something I've adjusted many times on other cars. The only difference really is I need to use the OBD computer to dial it in.

I know it seems strange perhaps. I've not encountered a system like this. This may well be due to me working on older cars that pre-date this sort of thing.

If I completely removed those three bolts I'm pretty sure the pulleys would just go round and round without moving the camshaft. Assuming there's nothing else that comes into play.

Sorry forgot to mention, I have shifted the pulleys back into what seems to be the correct position. The only thing I need to do now is get the belt back on and try to double check that nothing is badly out of position.

The markings are there for me to get everything lined up. What I'm effectively doing is keeping everything outside of the crankcase in position and moving the camshafts relative to the pulleys. I've just done it in a bit of a lazy way because, I hate the car!

 

[Billthecat]

Verrò linciato dallo staff, ma per esprimermi chiaramente ho bisogno di scrivere in italiano.

Le pulegge in questione sono asolate per permettere una migliore regolazione dei tempi di fasatura, I diesel hanno una forte compressione, le valvole e le loro sedi tendono a consumarsi, ad ogni cambio cinghia occorrerebbe avere I supporti di blocco cammes e albero motore, dopodiché regolarsi in base ai riferimenti sulla cinghia, le asole compensano anche il "ritorno" causato dal rullo (o pompa) tendicinghia.

Di norma I bulloni si trovano abbastanza al centro dell'asola, ma questo può essere controllato sono con gli alberi bloccati.

La mia opinione è che un tendicinghia allentato ha fatto saltare un dente in partenza a motore freddo.

Molti motori moderni non hanno più i riferimenti sul monoblocco e la testa, tutto viene affidato al blocca albero e ai riferimenti sulla cinghia, da qui il consiglio di sostituirla



I will be lynched by the staff, but to express myself
Clearly I need to write in Italian.
The pulleys in question are slotted for
allow a better adjustment of the timing of
timing, Diesels have strong compression,
valves and their seats tend to wear out, at every
belt change it would be necessary to have the supports of
camshaft block and crankshaft, after which
adjust according to the references on the belt, the buttonholes
they also compensate for the "return" caused by the roller (or
pump) belt tensioner.
As a rule, the bolts are located quite in the center
of the buttonhole, but this can be controlled just
with blocked shafts.
My opinion is that a loose belt tensioner has
blew out a tooth starting with a cold engine.
Many modern engines no longer have references on the
monobloc and the head, everything is entrusted to the lock
shaft and references on the belt, hence the
I recommend replacing it

 

[Nitro]

Whether you like the car or not has no bearing on a mechanical issue.
I honestly despise Ford products because I feel they are poorly engineered yet fixed more of them than any other vehicle.
I'm not allowed to post what I call them, because it is that crusty
Put it this way, it starts out with an F bomb.
They made me a lot of money, so that was the only part about them I liked.
We never used what is called a shotgun approach of throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks.
I no doubt spent thousands of dollars on repair manuals because you can't put a price on information.
At one stage of the game, I was considered a top contributing peer on an international tech network, yet still learned new things daily from others.
IATN had a daily digest of questions from other techies and offered those that did know a chance to offer the info to others.
Once I had a S-10 Chevy Blazer in my shop that had a distinct clunking noise on a washboard road you could feel in the left side of the driver's floor.
Generally, the S series 4x4s were notorious for bad lower ball joints. They were marginal so we changed them out.
No dice.
Next we removed the sway bar links on both sides.
No dice.
The rest of the front end checked out proper.
The customer was a good one, so I assured her it was ok to go on her trip and I would get to the bottom of it when she returned.
After she left, I posted the symptoms to the network.
Five minutes later, I got an answer.
There was a silent recall on the hood (bonnet) hinges that placed a nylon washer in the assembly to tighten up the hinge bolts.
I called her right back and asked her to return to my shop.
i stuck two plastic oil pan plug gaskets on the hinge bolts.
Problem solved, customer happy.
The crazy part was that the info came from a tech working out of a shop in France.



What exactly did the car do or not do besides a no start?
Was it running poorly before?

 

[Outdated]

Side note - @Billthecat, I enjoy your messages in Italian. It reminds me of a movie where throughout the whole movie Jet Li speaks only in Mandarin but everyone understands him and responds in English.

 

[Billthecat]

Il mandarino non è per palati fini

 

[MildredHubble]

Whether you like the car or not has no bearing on a mechanical issue.
I honestly despise Ford products because I feel they are poorly engineered yet fixed more of them than any other vehicle.
I'm not allowed to post what I call them, because it is that crusty
Put it this way, it starts out with an F bomb.
They made me a lot of money, so that was the only part about them I liked.
We never used what is called a shotgun approach of throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks.
I no doubt spent thousands of dollars on repair manuals because you can't put a price on information.
At one stage of the game, I was considered a top contributing peer on an international tech network, yet still learned new things daily from others.
IATN had a daily digest of questions from other techies and offered those that did know a chance to offer the info to others.
Once I had a S-10 Chevy Blazer in my shop that had a distinct clunking noise on a washboard road you could feel in the left side of the driver's floor.
Generally, the S series 4x4s were notorious for bad lower ball joints. They were marginal so we changed them out.
No dice.
Next we removed the sway bar links on both sides.
No dice.
The rest of the front end checked out proper.
The customer was a good one, so I assured her it was ok to go on her trip and I would get to the bottom of it when she returned.
After she left, I posted the symptoms to the network.
Five minutes later, I got an answer.
There was a silent recall on the hood (bonnet) hinges that placed a nylon washer in the assembly to tighten up the hinge bolts.
I called her right back and asked her to return to my shop.
i stuck two plastic oil pan plug gaskets on the hinge bolts.
Problem solved, customer happy.
The crazy part was that the info came from a tech working out of a shop in France.



What exactly did the car do or not do besides a no start?
Was it running poorly before?

It was running pretty well. It always preferred summer to winter. But this winter the starting seems to have gotten more and more difficult. If you started it up and you were in and out of it all day it was fine. Just mostly that first start the last couple of weeks. Really bad if you hadn't used it for a couple of days. Actually exhausted the battery when we had to go out when the cold set in so had to give it a boost. After that still a bit reluctant but it got going.

I had just thought that maybe the diesel wasn't flowing too well. So just chalked it up to that. A lot of the car is drive by wire so nothing to be gained really by pumping the throttle. Basically once she started it was a case of keeping the revs up for 10 seconds and it would idle, a little rough perhaps but not totally uncharacteristic for a diesel. Once it was warmed up and the timing presumably had advanced it was pretty smooth. A bit hesitant on junctions, but it's an automatic, diesel with a turbo so I didn't expect it to perform like mine does (or did before I struggled to finish of the work I was doing on it).

You are right, how I feel about the car shouldn't factor in. It's just a pig to work on as just about every nut and bolt is installed in such a way that you need to be a first class contortionist jedi Knight to do things that should be simple. So I guess I just can't bond with it in an emotional way like I have with other cars.

Other than that, it feels quite nice to drive, VW clearly spent most of the budget on the interior to isolate you from the realities of the car. Lots of sound proofing and weighty materials. It's just the oily bits that have disappointed me really. You just kinda get the impression it was designed in a cynical way with the hope that the owner would keep taking it back to the dealership every time something went wrong.

Honestly about a year ago I replaced a considerable amount of the suspension. That was a bit beyond my comfort level physically over recent years. Then the EGR valve went bad just before it's MOT inspection. I messed around with that for quite a while as it was difficult to remove without taking off a few other things that have their own removability issues. Then just when I had it all sorted and we were on our way to the inspection, I tried to wind the window down and the regulator failed quite spectacularly! So we had to cancel the inspection.

This car is a bit of an anomaly too, it seems to me a sort of transitional version of the car. So it has an unusual engine and often parts that we order turn out to be completely wrong even though the vin number and registration are used to crosscheck. We went through 3 damn window regulator units which are part of the inner door skin that were completely wrong and had some heated arguments with the supplier. In the end I managed to hack together a working one with parts from the last one we were sent lol! It's working fine still so that's good.

I have a workshop manual but almost everything in the engine bay is different on this version of the car! It's only really useful for suspension and wiring etc!

But! When I put the door handle back on according to the workshop manual, the flippin' thing completely lunched itself when I pulled the door open. It's again a common fault with these cars, there's a cam that actuates the mechanism and it's made out of some kind of chocolate as far as I can tell!

I did manage to get it to work but it's not quite as positive as it used to be. I've since come up with my own slightly heavy handed way of avoiding having to remove the handle now if I ever have to fiddle about inside that door again! Basically it's held in with plastic rivets/welds. So just cut them off and melt 3D printer filament onto them when reassembling!

 

[Lysholm]

Piss-poor cam timing will cause poor performance and ultimately hard starting especially if the engine is frigid cold

But the car died while it was being driven and warm. Regardless, the car should still run within the swath of it's factory allowable cam timing - especially if it's only one cam. And if that motor rotates clockwise (as we're looking at it) then the cam in question is fully advanced. If the bolts were loose it should be fully retarded.

I also don't buy the metal shrinkage. Sure it happens but, even going from extremes of -40F to 200F, the expansion and contraction would not exceed the fastener's stretch.

-

VW clearly spent most of the budget on the interior

VW has been repositioning itself as a bougie car brand for years, so comfort is top priority and longevity is not paramount for people that only keep cars a few years. But, if you think this car is a mechanical @$$hole, you should've been there when I was fixing the Bosch K-Jet mechanical fuel injection on my old VW Fox. I can't believe somebody got paid to design that.

I do hope the debating allows you to procrastinate a little longer from venturing into the cold.

 

[Mulder]

My guess the battery is on its way. Already needed a boost when cold. Engine working fine after the battery is somewhat recharged. Find a donor vehicle to borrow a battery from for testing.

 

[Nitro]

Well for what it is worth, we used to say that there is never time to do something right, but there is always time to do it over

 

[MildredHubble]

But the car died while it was being driven and warm. Regardless, the car should still run within the swath of it's factory allowable cam timing - especially if it's only one cam. And if that motor rotates clockwise (as we're looking at it) then the cam in question is fully advanced. If the bolts were loose it should be fully retarded.

I also don't buy the metal shrinkage. Sure it happens but, even going from extremes of -40F to 200F, the expansion and contraction would not exceed the fastener's stretch.

-


VW has been repositioning itself as a bougie car brand for years, so comfort is top priority and longevity is not paramount for people that only keep cars a few years. But, if you think this car is a mechanical @$$hole, you should've been there when I was fixing the Bosch K-Jet mechanical fuel injection on my old VW Fox. I can't believe somebody got paid to design that.

I do hope the debating allows you to procrastinate a little longer from venturing into the cold.

It wasn't warm though. It had been on a 5 minute journey to my dad's friends house. Then It was parked in the freezing cold for several hours. He got in, started, reversed out and as he put it in forward gear it stalled and wouldn't start. He cranked it for ages to the point where the battery ran out of juice.

He had 20 miles range fuel wise and he planned on driving to the gas station near his friend's house (literally about 30 seconds away). He thought maybe due to the cold the fuel reading could have been playing up so he walked up to get some more fuel. The battery had recovered a bit when he got back and refueled. He cranked the engine for a while until the battery was completely depleted.

That's where I came in, he called me up to bring the charger which has a fast charge mode, enough to get it running usually in around half an hour. So once the battery was reading over 14 volts I put it back in the car. It cranked for about 30 seconds and started up and ran ok with a bit of pressure on the throttle. Then when my dad tried to let it idle it immediately cut out.

The thing about the position of the camshaft bolts is that on the video I watched, the pulley was rotated identically to the ones on this car. Basically clockwise.

The guy doesn't show himself making the adjustment, he just points it out and it jump cuts to the pulley shown in the correct position. In other words with it rotated anti clockwise relative to the camshaft.

It may just be a weird anomaly, but this is where it started out, mostly because it was a lot easier to remove the timing belt cover, than to roll about in the snow looking for other likely candidates. I'm just not up to that physically.

So this just might be a fairly simple fix. The symptoms are identical to the video I saw and the cam shaft pulleys have the same tell tale signs that they have moved. Whatever the reason that happened. I think it's worth a try. Worst case I'm back at square one. But thankfully without having to roll about under this chattering clattering calamity of cogs and gears!

I'm not really following my usual methodical approach to these things. It's a bit of a hail Mary pass. But sometimes despite something seeming unlikely, it can turn out to be the cause.

I just repaired a computer that had a faulty capacitor. It looked fine based on all outward appearances but instinct made me zero in on it. It was certainly possible that it could cause the machine to cut out but there were dozens of others that could cause the same symptoms as they are essentially connected the same way. So a short on one becomes a short on all of them. But I thought it was as good a place to start as any of them and it had caught my attention so I started there. It was worth a gamble. It turned out I had found the problem on my first try.

I have in the past dismissed potential faults with all kinds of things, as conventional wisdom and experience makes them unlikely to be the cause of the problem. Basically "nah, it simply can't be that!". More than half the time in those situations it turns out to be the seemingly impossible. Or at least improbable.

So basically I'm starting with the timing as however any of us feel about theories on how they moved or why, the pulleys have moved. This will surely alter the timing and can certainly lead to an engine that struggles to idle or even start. So I will give it a try and if it works. It works. If it doesn't, well then there's probably going to be a lot of miserable roling about in the snow in the near future for me!