Mananged to bend all 16 valves today on a focus.

[Rmachines]

I purchased a 1.4L Ford focus a few days ago for my sister,  put an MOT on it, needed a new bush, which i did first, then serviced it, polished, with a full valet, then i went to do the cambelt.... (did it at work in the workshop where i had all the correct kit)

Timed it all up with the locking pins (has free floating crank pulley) fitted a gates cambelt kit, then refitted the bottom bolt and pulley aux belt pulley with the original bolt (only supposed to be used once), fired her up, lovely all good!  So i remove the bottom pulley again, to fit the covers, this time i use the new bolt which came with the kit,  started it again... spluttered, died, then i cranked it... loss of compression... surly not, couldn't have....  checked it over, timing was spot on as per the marks i made, but when fitting the locking kit blow me, the timing had slipped right out and done every bloody valve!

Turns out the gates kit came with a new bolt which was far to long, i assumed (after confirming it was the correct kit with the supplier and on the sticker on the box) the bolt was longer as the result of a known issue (as the tensioner was also changed due to past issues)  it didn't compress the free floating bottom pulley the thread hit the end of the hole causing it to slip .....destroying the engine

Very very teasey!!!

[AudiA8Quattro]

Ouch!!

[Jay]

Are the manufacturer or supplier going to rectify this eeing as it was a known issue?

[VW BUSH]

ouch

[danny_p]

automotive parts warranty / come back against manufacture f**kup mistake = myth   

never had an issue with gates as of yet,  last one i had was with BGA who just ignored everything  denied all knowledge of anything and ere general twits

[Rmachines]

I have always been a big fan of gates, but not so much now, i will see what they say when i kick off about it.

[dan2252]

own a few fords now. and done the cambelts on a few. the cams are floating too. and your meant to loosen them off to take the slack out of the belt did you? as the first one i did i ever did and timming jumped 2 teeth luckly didnt bend and valves just missed and poped haha,

[Rmachines]

Yea it was all done properly, I'm a diagnostic tech for honda, and i did it at work with the proper locking kit,  i have done many floating cams before in the past, and the fact this was running fine with the old bolt, and slipped in the crank with the new longer bolt says it all, the longer bolt leaves about 1mm gap, so it was basically left loose, im awaiting a response from gates now.

[Mr GTD]

Nasty!!

[gti gaz]

Ouchhhh