Am I being conned?

[Steve Bruce]

I recently got my timing chain replaced (within the last 3 months) and last weekend my car wouldn't start. I have breakdown cover and the fella came out and said it sounds like there's no compression, it's probably the timing chain.

I got the car towed to a garage that is opened on a Saturday to get it looked at, they had 2 different mechanics look at it and they both came to the same conclusion as the breakdown recovery fella.

So I got it towed again to the garage that done the work in the first place. He said don't worry he'll sort it. Now I get a call telling me that it's actually the oil pump that has exploded and has smashed the timing chain.

Now to me this sounds very suspect, I'm not mechanically minded at all, but this sounds too convenient. I'm not very happy at all to be honest.

The car is an 04 Honda Accord 2.2 ctdi Executive Tourer.

Thanks

Steve

 

[Jon_G]

Hi Steve,

There are 2 chains, a timing (cam) chain that runs up from the crankshaft sprocket plus an oil pump drive chain that runs down from the crankshaft sprocket (a double sprocket) to the oil pump and balancer shafts... do you know if both chains were replaced during the previous work? Why was the original work done... was it noisy, and did the repair done fix the noise?

I really can't tell, but it does sound suspicious! Maybe he only replaced the timing chain when it would be more usual to replace both... in fact, the oil pump chain is said to be the one that wears the most and - when it breaks - it often also breaks the timing chain, which then wrecks the engine... this won't be easily fixed and leads to many Accords being scrapped.

I have never heard of an oil pump exploding... if he did replace the oil pump drive chain, then maybe he put it back together wrongly, or left something loose, or there was a foreign part left floating around in there?

But, now he's taken it apart again, I guess he can make up whatever story he needs to, to cover up any wrongdoing. Or maybe he really is telling the truth?