timing off...can you drive it?

[68442]

Looking at a car that the belt is off by a tooth or so. Starts and runs fine, can this car be driven without messing anything up? How much can the belt be off without smacking valves?

 

[meliketoball]

Just fix it and it'll be fine. Drive it if only you have an axe murderer chasing you!

 

[68442]

I need to get it home 30 miles or so before I can fix it. It'd be much easier if it could make it under it's own power.

 

[tkelly27]

Personal experience, my car skipped a tooth and started running poorly. Figured I'd fix it when I got home which was about a mile away. Less than 250ft later and I have 4 broken valves and one of them is deeply implanted in a piston.

Fix it and drive it or have it towed. If it skipped a tooth, replace everything, tensioner, all the belts. It's gotten to the point where I'll include a new crank sprocket and pulley with the timing belt swap, just because I'm not sure what kind of monkey has been working on the thing before me.

 

[Evil04c]

Personal experience, my car skipped a tooth and started running poorly. Figured I'd fix it when I got home which was about a mile away. Less than 250ft later and I have 4 broken valves and one of them is deeply implanted in a piston.

Fix it and drive it or have it towed. If it skipped a tooth, replace everything, tensioner, all the belts. It's gotten to the point where I'll include a new crank sprocket and pulley with the timing belt swap, just because I'm not sure what kind of monkey has been working on the thing before me.

Ya I would surely fix the timing before you drove the car. 30 miles is a long way w/ a car that is running fine, yet your timing is off. Id fix it now, or call triple a or something. Don't drive it.

Unless of course you need an excuse to break things. Then by all means drive it.

 

[Defiant]

Discovery Bay Mitsubishi had my 95's rear balance shaft 180° out, and the intake cam off by three teeth. The guy I'd bought it from had been driving it that way for months.

 

[jcurcillo]

It is a different situation is somebody put the belt on wrong. At least the belt is tight with no chance of slipping. If the belt has slipped, chances are it is lose and will slip again. I would like drive it.

 

[srumel]

^ exactly. If it slipped a tooth, leave it parked and fix it. If it was set wrong, it will run like crap; but should still be good to drive. Hell, you could even put up with it for 2+ years like I did....ASE certified mechanics..right.

 

[dsmmike50t]

I say fix it but there was a guy that had his off by one or two on another forum and only realized it when he pulled off the belt. Only drive it if your desperate.


So I say repair it or you'll regret it after something big goes like the engine.

 

[LaserX]

I just rebuilt my 4g37 and been fighting with the timing for over a week now, i think we had it off by 180 degree before we started it and luckly my father caught it, and we fixed it started it and it ran like crap but of corse the distributer was off so we played with it some more and got it running better. I say fix it, it dont take nothin to fix it, pull number one plug, do what you can to find tdc then line the marks up on the cam gears slap the belt on and go, thats what we did the first time and then the belt broke wile i was trying to loosen the cam gear to replace the seal and it has all went to heck since.Just put a new oil pump in and putting the new timing belts on tomorrow or sometime soon i hope... Good luck man, i wouldn't suggest driving it tough!

Clayton