Rover 214 16V SEi possible timing belt related advice

the bolt has a shoulder on it which allows the cover to slide onto it without having to take the whole bolt out, but it shouldn't have any bearing on why you car wont start ?

Yes, you are absolutely right. The bolt has a shoulder to slide the cover, and also a thicker, kind of hexagonal shape after the shoulder, it's quite long, but I didnt know you didnt need to take the whole bolt out, I thought it was an ordinary bolt. I have no idea why the car wont start. It wont start after I did the little job I described before, so I thought I might have done something wrong. Do you think I may have missed something or messed up with something by accident? What could go wrong? I didnt do anything with the timing marks, didnt even touch it, but when i try start the car it does sound like if it's out of timing. I guess i'll have to check that the marks are all pointing where they should, but how could they ahve moved if I didnt do anything!! Do you have any idea!! Thanks for your help Gerard

Yes, you are absolutely right. The bolt has a shoulder to slide the cover, and also a thicker, kind of hexagonal shape after the shoulder, it's quite long, but I didnt know you didnt need to take the whole bolt

out, I thought it was an ordinary bolt. I have no idea why the car wont start. It wont start after I did the little job I described before, so I thought I might have done something

wrong. Do you think I may have missed something or messed up with something by accident? What could go wrong? I didnt do anything with the timing marks, didnt even touch it, but when i try start the car it does sound like if it's out of timing. I guess i'll have to check that

the marks are all pointing where they should, but how could they ahve moved if I didnt do anything!! Do you have any idea!! Thanks for your help Gerard

IIRC that bolt locks the belt tensioner, so it may be, especially if you rotated the engine with the bolt out, that the timing is wrong.

There is also the possibility that you dropped something down which jammed, damaged or whatever the belt.

First check: does everything turn when you try to start? (It will do little more damage if the belt is wrong, to try this again)

If it does all turn, then check the timing, this is not very easy on one of these, but basically the cam wheels should read 'exhaust, in exhaust , in' from left to right at the same time that the crankshaft timing mark is lined up. IIRC the crank pulley has an external mark, but it is hard to see except from underneath. You should use the double mark on the toothed crank pulley which lines up with a mark on the engine .

mrcheerful

the belt tensioner is locked by an allen bolt through the centre of the tensioner pulley which is only accessible with the cover off, there is another bolt which is 8mm but this only acts as a pivot for the adjuster as its tensioned by a spring. could be as you say something has dropped down and jammed it.

OP you sure its nothing simple like the immobiliser kicking in ?

snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com wrote in news:1139339048.747146.203380 @g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

One other possibility: you didn't by any chance start the car for a very short time to get it into position before doing the job, did you? If so, there is a possibility that it has flooded. Once flooded, these engines will stubbornly refuse to start, I know from experience. The only way to clear it is to remove the fuel pump fuse and keep cranking until it starts to fire, then replace the fuse.

Thank you everybody. All suggestions make sense. For example, Stu suggestion of starting the car for a short time for positioning the car is spot on. I indeed did that, so I'll try the trick of the fuel pump fuse to see if it works. I also dropped a bolt somewhere, and I havent found it yet. I am hoping this is not causing problems. The immobiliser could be another reason but i am not sure, because i can see the little red light on the panel blinking away when the immobiliser is ON and it is OFF when i deactivate the immobiliser with the control. I dont know if this thinking is right, i.e. not sure if even though i think the immboliser is OFF(as the red light is OFF) the immobiliser may in fact be still ON for some reason, is that possible??? I'll have a go tomorrow in the day light. Thank you everybody for your good ideas!!