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A newbie general question about timing belts.

I often hear it said that a loose timing belt or broken tooth could cause the timing belt to slip, thus affecting the timing and causing the engine to malfunction.

But, could that account for sporadic problems? I mean, it would seem to me (having just looked at my timing belt) that if it slipped, it would be at a new position, and it would be very unlikely to slip *back*; so, I would think that the timing would be consistently screwed up from then on, and although it might slip further and get worse, it wouldn't ever get better; the timing problem wouldn't come and go sporadically.

So what's the real story? Is there more to it than my simplistic understanding?

Also, what is the effect of slipping by one notch? How much would that affect an engine's timing; how noticeable would it be?

If it matters, I'm driving a '95 VW Cabrio; but the question is a more general one.

Thanks!

Reply to
Walter Harley
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When you install a timing belt one tooth off on a 1980 Rabbit it has less power than it already did not have. You know it if you know your car. It will not jump back it can only jump off more.

If you are asking the question it may be possible that you may not be able to evaluate the condition of the timing belt. If it looked really bad to the untrained eye then it would definitely be on the short list for replacement. If you have no service records of it being replaced at the specified intervals then it is due for a piece of mind change. There are recommended service intervals for the belt and best practices for what parts should be replaced at the same time. On some cars you replace the idler pulley and on other cars you replace the idler pulley and the water pump.

I just change them when the service >A newbie general question about timing belts.

Jim B.

Reply to
jimbehning

Very poetically put :-)

Thanks. In this case the timing belt was replaced about 7k ago (1yr); but the loss of power I'm having is intermittent, sometimes it works fine and sometimes it doesn't.

Reply to
Walter Harley

Loss of power is from something else. TIming is off and might just get more off. I don't have any of those new fangled gas engines. I now have an 87 Toyota gas, a bunch of older lawn equipment and a few newer diesels.

Fuel mixture off might cause problems. there could be a number of sensors for water temp that might be giv>> When you install a timing belt one tooth off on a 1980 Rabbit it has

Jim B.

Reply to
jimbehning

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