Weeksie

Hi, I have placed the bolt to my cam belt top cover in a very safe place - so safe that I cant actually find it. Does anyone know the size of the bolt so I can get a replacement? I can currently driving around with no cover on :-s

Hi, my engine management light came on last week but the car was working fine, then this weekend it started cutting out when I was driving. I bought a new coil pack and put it on today but the car won't even fire up now (even though the engine management light has now turned off) - it just turns over. I can't hear the injectors like I normal do when I turn the key either. It's almost as though the imobiliser is stuck on - anyone have any ideas as to what it could be?

Yes - I had a bit of a nightmare with the tensioner - took an hour to get it right! I made my own wooden clamps for the wet liners and used the cylinder head bolts to clamp it down securely - I didn't want to take any chances with them as I had read that it can be a real pain if they move. The only thing I forgot to do was put the gasket between the exhaust manifold and the cat, I will put it up on ramps next week to drop the exhaust and put it back on. When I bought the car last year I could see that the car hadent been maintained for some while... The bearings on the front suspension struts were badly worn and 'boinging', the oil was black and sludgy and it wasent firing properly. It's had 3 oil changes in 1 year and there is still a bit of sludge coming through, I am going to replace the sump gasket at the next oil and filter change as there is a slight leak so hopefully the sludge will settle In the sump so it will be removed when I take it off. Can't really grumble tho as the car only cost 700 quid!

The timing belt wasent tensioned properly... Now all resolved! Thanks so much for your help it's really appreciated ! :-)

Put the car back together today - locked the flywheel and cam - but it's now running rough and the engine management light is on - any ideas?

Thanks, will get my other half to gently push the lock in the timing hole while I turn the crankshaft pulley. Took the cylinder head off tonight to discover utter devastation - one snapped valve and the rest really bent along with one piston head with a deep gauge in it. I am hoping as the piston head damage is not punched all the way through the metal that it will be ok to keep in. A big lesson for me... read the Haynes manual properly!! Thanks for all your help, hopefully will have it back on the road next week!

Thanks for responding, how will I know if the flywheel is in the correct position? (probably a very stupid question!)

Our 2002 1.4 8v C3 conked out on the motorway, recovery guy said that the cam belt had failed. We took the covers off and could see that we had lost quite a lot of teeth in the cam belt, so stripped it down and put In new valves, new valve stem seals, new head gasket, new water pump and did and oil and filter change. However when we try and start it up is doesn't work. I put the locking tool in the cam, but the crank had what I though was a timing mark so I just aligned those before I put the new belt on. I fear I have bent the new valves because when looking back through the Haynes manual - I saw that I should have locked the flywheel. However, on some other forums it says that the flywheel is attached to the crankshaft so as long as it is lined up to the timing mark correctly - it should be ok? I don't know what to believe? I also did the valve clearances so im not sure why it isn't starting up? Its literally just cranking over and not firing. There was a pop of air when I tried to start it up the first time. I also noticed when I was doing the valve clearances that I couldn't