Feb 25, 2023
Time for the new puzzler!
This one is truly an automotive puzzler. Not a quasi-automotive puzzler, or a slightly automotive puzzler. A real, honest automotive puzzler.
Years ago we had a fellow come into the shop with a Mazda. One of those really little ones. It was a Mazda 323 I think, way back in the '90s.
The car had about 80,000 miles on it and it had a broken timing belt. If you're not familiar with a timing belt, it is a rubber belt that is flat and it has teeth on one side. The teeth wrap about sprockets and they go around the camshaft and the crankshaft and when they get old, they get weak and fall right off. All the teeth had been stripped on this guy's Mazda.
And we figured this was about the time that it would need a new timing belt anyway. So we put a new timing belt on. Then the guy tells us that he had just replaced the timing belt about 6 months before this. We thought this was strange, but you never know about the work that was done at another shop. Maybe they put it on wrong or something. So he left with a new timing belt. Then, about a week later, he comes back again. He needed a timing belt again. And again, the teeth had been sheared right off.
We were all standing around scratching our heads... So, we went ahead and replaced the timing belt again, assuming that the part must have been defective because we never make mistakes... Right? LOL...
So, we are extra careful when we put on the new timing belt. We check the tension multiple times. The installation is perfect.
Sure enough, a week later the guy comes back. The timing belt broke again. We couldn't believe it. The whole shop was moaning and groaning, just can't believe it. We are about to put on the 5th or 6th timing belt when one of the guys decides to take off the valve cover and take a look inside. He thought that maybe one of the valves was getting stuck, and maybe that was causing the breakage of the timing belt. So he checked it all out and nothing was wrong with any of the valves. However, while he had the valve cover off he noticed something that had to be fixed. He was able to solve the problem by removing a part. He took something out and said, "I guarantee you that this won't break anymore."
So the puzzler is, what did he do? What did he find in there that ended up fixing the problem once he pulled it out?
Good luck with this very, very automotive puzzler!
Well, it is finally time for the answer to our very, very automotive puzzler.
Little Mazda 323 from the 1990s has a broken timing belt. When when the belt gets old the teeth can get weak and they can get sheared off. We fix it and send him on his way. A week later it breaks again. And then again.
So, one of our guys decides to take the valve cover off. And he notices something in there that needed to be fixed. And this thing he saw was the source of the problem.
So what was wrong? What did he see under the valve cover?
The car had a broken head bolt. So every once in a while when this guy was driving along, he would hit a bump. When he hit it, the head bolt would jump up and hit the whole system. It would stop the camshaft from turning and shear the teeth right off the timing belt. So then, when the car was in the shop and the timing belt was replaced, it would be fine running in the shop because there were no bumps. But then he would drive off and go over a bump a week later, and then the timing bolt would break again.
An excellent automotive puzzler!
