Hi all,

I just got my 1987 Volvo 740 with 260,000km serviced by replacing the radiator, water pump, harmonic damper, all drive belts and the timing belt. The belts were getting a bit old and the timing belt was changed centuries ago, so it was time. The radiator had a little leak, so did the water pump, and the harmonic damper was also due for a change. My local mechanic did all of this; however, soon after driving the car away i realized that the engine was misfiring quite badly both at idle and while driving. Also, it cranked but had trouble starting up. Upon start up, if you switched into gear the car would simply stall (its a 4 speed AW71L auto). It would take multiple tries to start, and you had to wait 1 or 2 minutes until you could actually switch into gear without stalling.

For reference, prior to me giving the car to the mechanic it worked absolutely perfectly. There was absolutely no misfires, always started first time, and it never stalled when switching into gear. Ran very smooth.

The car had a new distributor, leads and spark plugs all replaced about 2 - 3 years ago so that's definitely not the cause of the misfire. The ignition system is in perfect condition.

So at this point i'm thinking the timing belt wasn't properly synchronized, which leads me to believe why its so rough, misfires and stalls.

The mechanic is closed over the weekend, so I am going first thing Monday morning to get this sorted as i paid a very large amount of $$$$ for all the repairs and i am VERY disappointed with the service.

Could anyone please share their thoughts on this? Perhaps it could be something else?

Thank you.