Yesterday I was asked by a good friend if I could take a look at a vehicle that he was thinking of buying and it reminded me of the disaster that became of the vehicle that he bought previous to this one. The previous vehicle was a Mazda E2000 van, around 1999 year model with approx. 170,000km on the clock. On first impressions, it had done some work in it’s life but nothing too severe. It was first owned by our No.1 telephone company and had no doubt passed through a few hands since then.
To cut a long story short we had no service history or reciepts for servicing to go on so a full service and checkover was recommended. We had a small list of mainly minor things he wanted fixed before handing over the money and the majority of these were repaired by the car yard. The van then came to me for the service and checkover. This is where the problems started and I do feel responsible, although I thought I had done my best to identify any issues.
Seeing as though the van had done 170,000km I had the opinion that the timing belt would have been replaced at some stage around 100,000km or it would have broken by now. Wrong!! As part of the service and check I removed the top timing belt cover and inspected the outside of the belt. In my experiences with timing belts if they are past their used by date the outside of the belt will have small cracks appearing and the writing on the belt would have been rubbed off long ago from running around the tensioner pulley. What I saw from the top was a belt that had no visible cracks in it, the writing was worn but still able to be read and I basically didn’t look any further and told my friend we would have to do the belt at 200,000km’s. That was the first stuff up and I was responsible for it!
The following weekend my friend and his two children went on a camping trip some two hours away from Brisbane. On the Sunday I got a phone call saying that the van had lost all power and stopped, and wouldn’t fire up again. As he was still a fair way from home he decided to call the RACQ. He called back saying the timing belt had broken and they were sending a tow truck to come and get them and their now dead vehicle. They arrived around an hour later and I started to pull all the timing belt covers off for a look. Once I had the belt off, about an hour later, it became all too clear what had happened. The teeth on the inner side of the belt had sheared off at the crankshaft pulley and obviously couldn’t drive the camshaft.
This is were it really turned to s**t! Because he had only had the van for a week before this happened we both thought that he had a good chance of having it repaired under warranty. A phone call to the car yard was made on Monday morning and they sent a tow truck over to pick it up saying that they would have to have a look at it first before deciding if it was indeed a warranty issue. Second stuff up!! The car yard had it’s own mechanic (if you could call him that!) and by Tuesday the cylinder head was off and it was found to have two bent valves. Not uncommon when a timing belt breaks.
The following events go a long way to give us mechanics the bad name we seem to attract. The mechanic told my friend the car would be ready by 2pm the following Friday. Typically they dodged the question of who would be paying for the repairs and as the van was needed for my friend to run his business he was at a stage where he just wanted it fixed and back on the road so he didn’t worry too much about the money side of things.
2pm Friday came and he was told to hang around the workshop while they finished it off. 3pm came and went and I think by 4pm it was ready to go. He was then presented with a bill for nearly $800.00 for the repairs. He paid it, just glad to have the van back and on the road again. He called me on his way home saying that it wasn’t running right and the temperature guage hadn’t moved at all since leaving the workshop. Feeling bad for not picking up on the worn belt for a start I told him to bring it right over and I’d take a look. I dropped him off at home and got to work.
What I found blew me away! The van was only running on three cylinders. Further investigating revealed that most of the vacuum hoses had been left off and the ones that were connected were all wrong. I got a vacuum hose diagram and fitted them all correctly and we had all four cylinders firing again. Next item was the temp. guage not working. Had a poke around and found the sender wire hanging down not connected at all. Found the reason for this, they had snapped off the connector on the sender. Ordered a new sender, fitted it and we had a temp guage. I wonder whether they would have covered a new cylinder head under warranty if he had overheated it on the way home, without a temperature guage it could have been possible.
It gets better! After being parked in my garage for a few hours I noticed some coollant on the ground underneath the van so I grabbed my pressure tester, thinking I’d have to get some pressure in the coolling system to find the leak. As soon as I started pumping pressure into it, around 5psi for the first pump, the bottom radiator hose came flying off at the waterpump! So I mopped up the mess and jacked the van up for a closer look. The clamp that is supposed to hold the hose on to the waterpump was halfway down the hose. It was reasonably tight around the hose too so it hadn’t worked it’s way down there, it had been loosened off when it was all pulled apart and then the hose was pushed back on to the waterpump and the clamp must have been forgotten. Another reason why it could have overheated and damaged the newly reconditioned head on the drive home.
To add to the dilemma there were two brackets not fitted. One was a reinforcement for the fan assembly and when questioned about these they couldn’t (or wouldn’t) find them. Add to that several bolts left out and no bolts at all in the exhaust manifold heat shield and the timing out by ten degrees. And to make matters worse the van is now using one litre of oil per 1000km. The only time it blows smoke is when it is started after sitting for a while indicating worn valve stem seals, although they insist that they were replaced in the reconditioning process.
Although I am coming down hard on the so called mechanic that did the repairs, I do feel responsible for the problem in the first place and have tried to help out our friend as much as possible and wouldn’t charge him for the follow up work although he insisted I charge him for my time. I certainly learnt a lesson from all of this and I can’t stress enough how important it is to know the history of a vehicle that you are about to buy. What surprised me the most was how good the timing belt looked from the outside even though it had travelled over 170,000km.
In comparison the vehicle that is replacing that lovely van has full documentation and reciepts from the dealership where it was serviced. It has travelled 120,000km and has had every service since new and yes it has had the timing belt replaced! If at all possible when looking for a vehicle pick the one that has proof that it has been looked after and don’t listen to the sales people if they tell you it has had all it’s services done if they can’t provide you with a properly stamped log book or reciepts for the work done. Telling you what you want to hear is one thing, having the proof to back it up is another. And yes my pre-purchase inspections are more thorough now when a timing belt is in question!
Take care and be safe on the roads.
Craig
First of all I will cover the type of rear disc brakes mainly found on Commodores and late model Falcons. They have the handbrake mechanism set up as a drum brake inside the rotor. If you need to adjust the handbrake please read the Handbrake adjusting post. Replacement of the brake pads on this set up is very easy. Once again check the thickness of your rotors to determine if you need to replace them as well.
Removal of the brake pads is as simple as removing the 15mm bolt from the bottom caliper slide. You will have to hold the caliper slide from turning with a 17mm open end spanner. Once you have the bolt removed pull the caliper up from the bottom and slide the caliper out of the bracket. Remove the brake pads and push the piston back into the caliper using either method described in the front pad replacement post.
One of the most important aspects of replacing brake pads is ensuring that the new pads have the best chance of a long life. Nothing worse than one side wearing down completely and the other side having plenty of meat left on the pad. One cause of this is sticky or siezed slides in the caliper bracket. If they feel sticky or are stuck in the bracket work them loose and apply some anti-sieze compound or high-temp grease. This will help to maintain even brake pad wear.
Once you have the old pads out and the piston pushed back, fit the new pads and slide the caliper into the top bracket hole. Push the caliper down over the brake pads, making sure both spring clips are in the correct position. Refit the 15mm bolt and tighten using your 17mm open end spanner to hold the slide from turning. Refit the wheel and repeat on the other side. Once you have both sides finished pump the brake pedal until you have a firm pedal, check the brake fluid level in the master cylinder and road test. Use several firm stops from around 60km/hr to bed the brake pads in. If the new pads came with bedding-in instructions follow them, as some manufacturers have different ways of doing this. That’s all there is to it!
