piece of plastic fell into timing belt area..

[turbonawd]

well I took off the timing belt cover to inspect the timing belt and a piece of plastic came off the cover and fell inside. I drove around for about 15-20 with the cover off hoping it might fly out. Anyways the car runs fine and I don't hear any rubbing noise whatsoever. am I ok?

could it fall off through the bottom? a guy at RRE said it might end up in the oil filter

I would be worried if it was a screw or a bolt but it was a little piece of plastic about the size of a toothpick

 

[2-0turbo]

I didn't see the piece, but from what you describe, I might leave it. If we are wrong, though, it can be mighty expensive! : )

 

[turbonawd]

 

[DrZiplok]

It's unlikely to end up in the oil filter, and something that size is *probably* too small to knock one of the belts off.

Of course, since you've driven around already, the point's kinda moot. If it hasn't fallen into the belts by now, it's probably gone out the bottom or permanently glued to the front of your engine with all the goo that lives down there.

 

[DSMJim]

I had that exact same thing happen to me. I opened it up and it looked like a little piece went down inside there. I just had my frikin timing belt done after that too. I was kinda worried about starting it up just incase. I did and drove around for a while and nothing.

On the bottom of our motors is there not a cover around the crank that would catch stuff like that or is it open? I can't remember anymore because I havn't seen my car in like 2 months

 

[Wizard]

Considering the fact that our cars will snap or break teeth off the belt just sneezing on it and the cost of the repair.....I WOULD NOT 'LEAVE' IT.

I would rather have my car down for a day than spend $300-1200 to fix that small piece of plastic.

It is more than likely one of the dust seals from the timing cover. We actually have a problem with the Hyundai 4-cyl doing the same thing....and yes the timing belt will skip teeth with something that small. It doesn't take much. All it has to do is be only 1/4 inch thick, get caught between the crank sprocket and the belt. Engine torque, etc will make the belt ride to the next tooth or more.

2 options:

Pull the whole setup and find the pieces and remove them
Or.....
remove the crank pulley, undo the lower cover a bit and spray compressed air, water, something in there to dislodge the stuff. And while you're at it. Remove the rest of the dust seals from the cover. They'll only cause problems later and don't work anyway.

And no it won't end up in the oil filter.....why they told you that i'm not sure.

Wiz

 

[hostile]

The peice is probably the hard plastic timing cover gasket. There isnt really any way for it to go into the engine considering nothing internal is down there just sprockets and belts.

You can unbolt the bottom of the cover and take off the crank pulley and shake it a little bit and it will probably fall out.

I made the mistake of pressure washing my engine one day it ended up knocking out two bolts that hold the inner back timing covers.

They spun around hard enough to be permenantly pressed into the top cam gear cover. The engine si fine other than damage to the plastic and the scuffing on the t belt.