I just had the timing belt and water pump replaced on my 130K V70R. The job was done buy a Volvo only indy repair shop with a good rep. I did notice all the computer stuff had been reset, MPG, MPH etc etc. The car feels down on power. Not a turtle or anything, just feels like there's more of a lack of power down low. Nailing it still seems to have a rip factor. Is there anything that could have been knocked loose during the TB work? Is the car re-learning fuel trim or some such? When I dropped it off I was reading 24 MPG avg. After a 40 mile ride home it only got to about 22 MPG. I may be reading too much into this. Let me know if there's maybe something I should check.
Thanks.

 

Possible one tooth off on the timing.

 

Curiously the mileage is actually quite a bit better. The computer was reading 27.5 MPG for my morning commute (40+ miles). I've generally not gone over 24. Power, it's there but it seems to take a fair amount more gas pedal to bring it online. I stopped by the shop where the work was done and they suggested I might want to drive the car for a couple of days and if it still doesn't feel right, bring it in next week. The engine idles ok and starts right up in the morning. Should there be a more dramatic change is the belt were off by a tooth, or could there be just a subtle change like I seem to be experiencing. I don't want to hassle the service techs since I really need these folks to care for issues beyond my skills. How much of a PITA is it for them to pull the cover and re-check the timing marks? The car's a 98 V70R and I believe it has the auto type belt tensioner. I'm pretty sure if I had purchased the car today and started driving it I would have no complaints, but having driven it before I do really think something's amiss.

 

It would take about 5-10 minutes to check the timing marks.
It won't hurt anything at all if it is a tooth off.
Yes one tooth off can affect how it feels.

These cars can be about 2-4 teeth off between the 2 cams and still run and not hurt anything.

 

To just check the belt all I have to do is remove the cover held on with the 12mm bolt, jack up the car and remove the right side front wheel, peal back the wheel well cover to access the 30mm crank bolt. I should then be able to turn the engine and see how everything lines up. Is this the correct procedure? I do realize the marks are seriously hard to see. I just want to make sure I don't have to remove the back of the timing cover, the one that one lines up to for the camshafts. I don't plan to do anymore than see if it's off a tooth or so. Definitely down on power since the belt was put in. When I nail it fom dead stop, there a 2 to 3 second delay before there's any kind of power. It used to basically jump right away. Cruising and giving it more gas used to immediately speed it up, now I've got to press down a lot further to get any action.

 

Yes what you said is what you need to do to check if it's out of time. The cam marks are easy to see, it's the crank that will be somewhat tough. If you can't find the crank mark, another way is to make sure #1 cylinder (one cloest to the belt) is at top dead center. Then if the cam marks are not in place it's 180 degrees off, so turn until it's at TDC again, and the marks should be lined up for the cam or very close.

Now if you are off by a tooth or two, what are you going to do?

If you got this far, you might as well fix it. It's not that hard. Just take the tensioner off, compress it and put a pin through it to keep it compressed. Remove the timing belt, line up the marks, put the belt back on, put the tensioner back on and pull out the pin. I watched my son in-law do it enough on my car that I would feel comfortable doing it myself and I'm not one who would usually do this. I just can not see the crank mark.

 

Yeah, if in fact the thing is off I will probably fix it. Maybe. Most likely the shop will have to do the whole thing for me as I am probably not going to have time this weekend to fix it. My Mazda uses a similar type tensioner and I did the same thing, mis-aligned. It was an easy fix. Didn't know about the TDC business, that will halp a lot in helping me find the crank mark. Thanks.

 

Once you have done a couple of them you will breeze through it like nothing.