Well things have gotten worse. After being told that the problem was fixed, I went to pick it up and yet again ruff start, shaking, no boost, and wierd rythmic sound that I can only compare to maybe a baseball card in a bike spoke. It runs like ****, and my check engine light went back on as soon as I drove it off the street. Then there's the new problem, the car reaks of gas inside the car, and after I got back to my house and opened the hood the entire engine compartment smelled like my face was in a gas can. I have no hope now, and feel like I'm very screwed because pretty much all my money was spent on the timingbelt ( so i can't take it anywhere else soon ) and I don't trust this mechanic for nothing and don't want him to keep messing my ride up. I found out that a fault code he said originally was a clogged injector was in actuality a #4 misfire code. I dunno, I'm so worried and I just don't know what to do. Should I take it back? Do I have any legal grounds to have them outsource the job to a shop I trust? The mechanic told me to drive it for a week get some miles on it and it should smooth out but this sounds ridiculous to me, especially with the gas smell, I'm not talkin a whiff, I'm talkin getting stoned while driving fumes. Thanks for the feedback and help. If I bring it back I'm gonna demand that he re-check the timing because I feel that ace was right. But man, I just don't want this @#$% touching it anymore.

 

I didnt read if you tried, but replace the ICM if you are sure the coil packs are OK. You are miss fireing and running WAY rich which is causing your rough idle and gas smell, blinking cel etc. Dont drive the car with a blinking cel. I think that is half your problem and the other half, if you skipped more than a couple teeth on timing, your valves are fucked and youll need a new head. Or it could JUST be bent valves from the timing belt losing teeth and messing up your timing which will cause the fuel that is trying to get combusted to not fully combust and you have a bunch of unburt fuel sitting in the head, soaking up on your spark plugs which is causing missfires etc.
This is a very shitty situation for you
Unfortunately the best way to go about fixing it would be to re verify the timing is correct again, see how it runs, check the coil packs and ICM, and if it still runs crapy, assume the valves are shot and replace the head w/ new valves.

 

If you smell fuel you probably have a leak, and that should be easy to spot. Maybe he didn't hook the fuel lines up to the injectors properly or something.

After fixing the leak, start simple. Switch the coil packs on #4 and #3 and see if the misfire code shows up on #3 afterward. If it moves to #3, then it's the coil pack, replace it. If not, check the plug in #4. If the plug is ok, then go for the more heavy-duty stuff such as checking compression to see if you have valve damage or the timing off.

I'd take it to someone else, or at least DIY troubleshoot what you can so you can give info to the mechanic.

 

good god man you hit a few valves, no guess work here the timing belt spun and lost a few teeth what do you expect

 

Yup if you skip more than 1 tooth on timing at least with this engine you can pretty much assume there is damage to the valves.

 

I thought timing belt problems were common with this engine, and missing teeth were as well, I didn't think bent valves were common too. I know I asked this before but any clue as to the dollar amount for a new head, or new valves, and will I pretty much always have problems afterwords? Also is it obvious to a mechanic when replacing the belt if the tensioner is faulty? Thanks

 

yep been there seen it dun it and 2 tee shirts

 

there was a whole row of teeth missing, weird too cuz the engine didn't make any noise or anything prior to it dying out.

 

you could be lucky and replace the timing belt with no damage ( done it many times ) god willing, nothing to lose though

 

Obviously they didn't check the timing and alignment of the cam and crank.

You have 2 choices:

1. take it back, and demand that they make sure they line things up right per the manual
or
2. Do it yourself

If you do are going to do it yourself, go buy an obdII code reader and a manual.. It will cost about 125 for the reader, 15 for the manual. It is money well spent and you will use it may times over. its also good for any car 1996 or newer.

So, the first thing I would do is make sure the crank and cam are lined up, spin the engine around a few times, and make sure it lines up still.

Then, put it back together and start it up, and see where its at. Clear the codes and see what comes back. If its mis-firing still, then maybe coils, or ICM are to blame. If you still suspect valve damage, a cylinder compression test of each cylinder will rule that out. Other things to look at - clean the MAF, look for air leaks, clean throttle body and intake temp sensor.

Hopefully, since you know the owner, and have had them do all this work, you can convince them that they did not do the job right and get them to fix it. The car was fine before you took it in to them, so they really should get things working properly before telling you to drive it. i agree with you, this mechanic is a dumbasz, cause you should never expect problems like this to just "smooth out after driving it for a week". What an idiot.

Here is a good timing belt guide. I hope that you get your problems resolved, please let us know how things go, and good luck.

http://www.audiworld.com/tech/eng35.shtml