Helping out a neighbor and changed his timing belt for him. I marked on the belt where everything goes and also went by the alignment marks. Went well and the car fired up and ran fine for a day. Then he said the engine light popped on and the car lost his zippyness. I doubt it jumped a tooth being new so I had him come back over. Now were throwing both cams not synced to the crank. Pulled covers and all still looks good. Thoughts? Never touched sprockets. Does he have to get like a crank relearn?

 

May have answered my own question. The gears did move but I never touched the vvt hubs. With more reading I doubt I preloaded them. Took the belt off, preloaded the sprockets clockwise until it stopped the freeplay before turning the cams. Lined them up preloaded and fired it up. Once he brought it back and erased the codes it would throw both codes within 30 seconds as pending. Now I let it run for 15 minutes at various rpms and nothing yet. Well see out on the road tomorrow!

 

Nope. Light back on. Both codes again. Any thoughts?

 

I did notice whoever did the belt before me etched timing marks into the solenoid case and on the back of the cam gear... could the previous mechanic have did something so the true marks are not useful anymore?

 

did you check for timing marks on the rear side of the cams?

 

I did and there are marks. Theres this one in the back and also 2 other small ones like the front not shown that kinda look home made. I also noticed homemade marks in the solenoids as well.from the PO. IM AT A LOSS...

 

Hey is that a fake crank mark on the cover? I cant find any images like that anywhere....