147 Gta Cambelt Crisis

Hi all. Just had a cambelt change and a full service done by a reputable local garage. After collecting the car I discovered to my horror that it ran unevenly at idle when cold and knocked at idle when warmed up. Returned it the following morning and they stripped it and re-fitted the belt admitting that it was "slightly" adrift on the crank pully. Car runs fine now but could this cause problems in the future such as burnt out valves (or worse)?!!! Should I insist that the heads are stripped to assess any damage? That knocking noise could have been the valves wacking the piston heads! Oooooer! They said it was only half a tooth out but surely thats not possible as the crank pully locks onto the crank? Its got to be one tooth out. My car has been a trusty and dependable friend for nearly five years and I would really like to keep her. Help!

A lucky escape I reckon, if its running fine now then there's no way the valves and pistons met - if they did you would know about it.

A good reason why not to use your local reputable garage, and to take your car to an Alfa dealer or preferable an independent Alfa specialist that has access to the GTA camlocks that are required to do the job properly:

http://www.alfaowner.com/Forum/alfa-...-grrrrrrr.html

Oh dear, the problem with using a garage that is not a specialist, they won’t have the correct cam locking tools to do the job. It is impossible to do the job properly with out the right tools, you can’t get the right tension on the belt and you are just guessing with the cam timing.

You will probably have tippex makes on you cam belt cover which is how they have tried to make the timing. This is the tell tale sign the job has not been done correctly. To be quite frank you are probably better off not changing the belt at all if it is not been done right.

GTA cam locking tools are expensive, there are companies out there that do rent them out, EB spares I think.

Don’t get me wrong about the garage you have used, they may well be reputable and do a good job but I suspect they don’t know how to do the job.

I don’t think you are out of the woods at all.

Ned

Hi

moved to 147 lounge

Sorry, hello and welcome by the way

Ned

Ripping the head off sounds a little drastic, if the car is running fine I doubt you'll have done the engine any damage. Perhaps booking it into your local specialist, explain the situation and get them to check it over.

one tooth off is not all that bad, as long as you had it fixed next day no harm done ! you were lucky this time pfeeeh

Hello all. Thanks to all for your imput. You have put my mind at ease. Hopefully no unseen damage has been done and me and my alfa will have many more years together . It always pays to check these things out though.
The garage that I used are actually Alfa specialists and have all the correct tools for locking the cams. They acted very promptly and efficiently in sorting out the problem.
Watch this space for further postings and a few pics.
Barrie

Sounds to me the timing is out a touch..
There are GTA cam locking tools around and.... They shouldnt have just tipp ex'ed them