Olympia Auto Repair

The timing belt works to synchronize your car's crankshaft and camshaft's rotations to ensure your engine's valves open and close at the proper times. Essentially, when the timing is off, the top and bottom halves of your engine are no longer in sync. At the moment a timing belt fails, the valves get stuck in the position they are in, but momentum forces the pistons forward directly into the valves, damaging them. Even a loose timing belt can cause problems. The belt can loosen causing it to skip a tooth resulting in out-of-sync timing. Issues with timing can cause serious problems such as misfiring or a decline in power. My timing belt snapped: Is my car a lost cause? The main fear behind a broken timing belt is the need to replace the engine. Often drivers decide to cut their losses and invest in another car. But potential damage to your engine depends on your car's type of timing configuration. Interference engines: The pistons and valves in an interference eng ... read more