23/01/2018
Another unbelievable story here……………it all started on Sunday when I got a phone call from my mechanic friend Jamie. He said his Mitsi Outlander engine (2 litre diesel DI-D) had suddenly stopped when just lightly cruising near Renishaw Park Golf course. And it wouldn’t restart. Cranking okay but no start.
It was recovered to my workshop where we quickly discovered the timing belt had lost a lot of its teeth! Jamie said he had only changed it and the water pump about 2 years ago.
This engine is an interference engine, which means that if the timing belt snaps or slips it is highly likely the pistons will hit the valves and cause serious engine damage.
We abandoned it for the day and I started to dismantle it on the Monday while Jamie was at work.
Have a look at the photo that shows the crank pulley with all the covers removed. Just to the left of it, between the belt and the case were all the teeth off the belt! And I mean ALL the teeteh! See photo of the belt.
According to the diagram the timing belt only drives the cams and the water pump on the tooth side. So it looks highly likely the water pump had seized and the belt had slipped over the top of it, shearing all its teeth off.
Jamie mentioned he had a slight coolant loss, so had put in some green coolant dye to find where it was leaking from. And if you look at the photographs carefully, you can see the green stains around the crank pulley.
I photographed the removed water pump on the bench and confirmed it had seized solid. The impeller was at an angle to the axis showing the bearings had collapsed inside, no doubt due to the coolant.
Anyway, Monday and Tuesday evening we reassembled the engine with new timing belt, tensioner, idler pulleys and water pump. And the glow plugs since they were old. Oh, and a new cam cover gasket and auxiliary drive belt.
Fingers crossed when we turned the key, and it actually started and ran really well!! Lucky or what???
Perhaps not really lucky because he then found a broked coil spring on the front left hand side, a worn track rod end on the same corner and 2 dodgy drop links at the front.
These were soon replaced and the “war machine”, was back on the street-at a cost of about £366 in parts. We don’t count labour!!
I was relieved it had been fixed, and the following day I took my Wife’s X type jag in for its MOT at Jamie’s garage. It is a 2005 estate, automatic, petrol (2.5 litre V6) and drives beautifully! Not a young man by any means (the car, not me) but at 70 odd thousand miles is not too many miles for its age.
Very quiet on the way there with o apparent faults. Onto the MOT lift it went, up in the air, all checked out, emissions really, really low, so it was lowered to the ground. But it was at an angle. Lower on the front left. Back up in the air it went and a broken front left hand spring was noticed. Photo included.
Ordered 2 at a cost of about £48 and the plan was to change both at the front, not just the broken one.
Started dismantling that evening but we couldn’t push the CV joint through the hub. Abandoned for the evening. Early start the following day and no matter how many fancy hub pullers I tried nothing would move the CV joint through. The pinch bolt clamping the knuckle to the strut was seized and the bottom ball joint wouldn’t come out. After quite a few hours of heat and hammers and levers I eventually removed the whole strut and knuckle and driveshaft onto the floor.
The pinch bolt was removed with heat and the strut removed to the spring compressor and the spring removed. I then accidentally knocked the top suspension strut bearing off the bench and it hit the floor and all the 30 ball bearings shot out all over the place! And it disintegrated into its component parts. All 6 of them.
I eventually found 27 of the 30 ball bearings by crawling across the workshop floor on my hands and knees! I reassembled it but decided enough was enough so ordered a new one from a local parts supplier.
It was delivered about 20 mins later but I couldn’t make it fit, so phoned them up to ask if it was correct. Unfortunately they had got the registration wrong over the phone and it was for a Ford transit. Not a Jaguar X type. I asked for it to be collected and the proper one sent but was told it was a dealer only part. By this time it was 5:30 so I decided I would regrease the old one and refit it. Which was successful.
I put the knuckle and driveshaft in my 20 ton press and pushed to the limit. The pressure relief valve blew out at 20 tons but would it move? Err……No.
So I put it all back together, ignored the drivers side for the time being (it was okay anyway) and drove it home. I picked up 4 new tyres the following morning since they were quite old and approaching the legal limit and took them to jamie’s garage where they fitted the tyres and checked the alignment and it passed its MOT. Job done? Errr…..no.
Fast forward to this morning and I was sorting out the receipts for my trusty accountant and noticed that it stated I bought 2 springs for a Ford Mondeo 1.8!! What!! I then noticed the registration plate was wrong again on the receipt. Had I spent 8 hours fitting a spring that was incorrect for the car? had I made a mistake on the phone?
Luckily my phone records every call, so I played it back. I hadn’t made a mistake, so I phoned up the parts suppliers and asked if the spring I fitted was correct. Was it??.....No, it bloody wasn’t. It actually fitted the car very well, so I was unaware of the fact that it wasn’t correct. I couldn’t compare it to the old one because it was shattered and the bottom bit was missing.
So guess what I had to do….yes, get the correct spring and do the job all over again. Which I did this morning.
The proper spring was longer and thicker but had the same ends. Obviously not safe but it is now. Is it all done now? At last? Well, I still have to change the drivers side front spring, but its okay for now so I will change it in the spring. Unless it snaps before then….Lol!
So us mechanics don’t get away without car troubles either!!
