Fault code p0340 after timing belt change

[MarkS_S3]

Hi guys, I had my water pump and timing done today and my car came back with the engine management light on and the fault code p0340.

After looking it up I can safely assume that the timing is just a little out so have dropped it back to the garage so they can sort it tomo.

I was wondering if anything bad might have happened in the engine as a result? The car idles fine and drove ok afterwards, just the engine light and that code were the issues but I don't want my engine to suddenly bust a piston through the bonnet or some crazy shenanigans like that!

 

[VAG-Slag]

Tooth out is generally fine, i would't worry... As you said your self " The car idles fine and drove ok afterwards"

You'd know about it if it wasn't fine!

 

[MarkS_S3]

Yeah I was reading horror stories and making myself paranoid, although the majority of those did include the fact the car was running like **** before the engine got destroyed!

 

[Clart]

It's quite common by all accounts, it happened to me, well I inherited the car with it being out a tooth and I drove it for months before I took it to Badger 5 and he picked up on it straight away... Didnt do me any harm, just get it fixed up

 

[MarkS_S3]

Oh yeah its deffo getting sorted ASAP. I ended up paying £600 for the water pump, timing belt and tensioner so I wasnt the happiest of bunnies when the car had the management light on when I got it back!

Look forward to the car being in good health again though, looks like I'll be keeping her for a whiley still after this

 

[Clart]

They are good cars...

 

[VAG-Slag]

Oh yeah its deffo getting sorted ASAP. I ended up paying £600 for the water pump, timing belt and tensioner so I wasnt the happiest of bunnies when the car had the management light on when I got it back!

Look forward to the car being in good health again though, looks like I'll be keeping her for a whiley still after this

600 QUID!?!? . . Where the **** did you go? I don't think even Audi charge that much

 

[MarkS_S3]

600 QUID!?!? . . Where the **** did you go? I don't think even Audi charge that much

I was originally quoted £460 so yeah I ended up getting royally done. They didn't go into much detail about the tensioner damper they replaced but it was an extra £100 on the bill and then the vat.

Didn't even get a phone call to ask if I wanted to go ahead or had the extra money to pay for it!!

 

[Imola-S3]

Naming and shaming usually does these dodgy garages the justice they deserve.

 

[MarkS_S3]

It's the station garage in Kintore.

Just come off the phone to them and they're saying the sensor itself is broken. So now they want me to pay for a new sensor? That can't be right, I told them I didn't have any engine lights flashing up before they did the work and asked if they've checked if the timing is off by a tooth. He told me the timing can't be off on these engines because there's a chain between the two tensioners or something?

Not sure how to proceed! Don't want to be handed back a bag of **** with the engine light flashing up all the time after forking out such a huge amount of money and I definitely don't want to pay for a new sensor when I don't think there was anything wrong with it before.

 

[Imola-S3]

You had none of these issues before taking the car to them I presume?

Which strongly suggests it is their poor workmanship which is the cause of your problems.
Now they're breaking parts on your car to try and worm out of having to re-do the job for free.

Typical cowboy garage. Do they have a website / google page or something similar? Usually you can leave reviews on there for these companies. Go on there now and if possible leave them so negative reviews which will seriously dissuade others from taking their cars there.
They're ripping you off - no question about it. And adding extra's to the bill without consulting with you first should of been the first sign that these people aren't to be dealt with. Tell them you're going to trading standards as well.

They have obviously done the job completely wrong. I'm sure with these cars you've got to match up a notch on the gearbox / flywheel as well as on the belt side. So even if one side is lined up.. if the gearbox is out it means nothing (someone correct me if I'm wrong on that).

I had a similar issue last year when getting a performance clutch kit fitted to my car - by a supposed gearbox specialist. Approx. 1,500 miles, Two clutch kits, one flywheel and £1600 later and I was still unable to properly shift gear - my concentric slave cylinder popped leaking brake fluid all over my newly fitted clutch, ruining it in the process... Took it to a different garage who took the gear box off and immediately discovered that 3 of the flywheel bolts hadn't been nipped up properly - and he believe it had been done on purpose.

I'd taken the car to this other place twice, paying him £700+ (plus giving the tw@t a tip) only for the same fault to occur twice. He blamed the clutch kit the first time around - fitted the second kit which did the same thing - and he still had the cheek after I'd contacted him the 2nd time my clutch had gone to say I should've taken the car back to him instead of going to another garage! This bloke was just out for making as much money as possible out of me, regardless of the cost of replacing these clutches and flywheels - and was probably hoping my gearbox would fail so he could get a full rebuild job out of me for that!

Lagonda Garage, Billingham - I definitely would not recommend! All he would offer to do for me was replace the clutch kit.

 

[VAG-Slag]

It's the station garage in Kintore.

Just come off the phone to them and they're saying the sensor itself is broken. So now they want me to pay for a new sensor? That can't be right, I told them I didn't have any engine lights flashing up before they did the work and asked if they've checked if the timing is off by a tooth. He told me the timing can't be off on these engines because there's a chain between the two tensioners or something?

Not sure how to proceed! Don't want to be handed back a bag of **** with the engine light flashing up all the time after forking out such a huge amount of money and I definitely don't want to pay for a new sensor when I don't think there was anything wrong with it before.

Absolute ********! . . There is a chain between the two cams, so they should be fine. But the belt is a different thing all together and they know it... it's actually very common for the crank to rock forward a tooth when you release the tensioner, i've done it my self before and so have may other people (including tuffty!) on this forum. In fact there was a very similar post a couple weeks back.

Take it back, get them to re do it, don't pay a penny extra, NEVER SPEAK TO THEM AGAIN!!!

Also, you could actually check the timing your self pretty easily....

 

[MarkS_S3]

Well at the moment theyve still got the car and are waiting for the sensor they ordered to arrive. Tempted to call them back and say to double check the timing as pretty sure it's not been looked at again.

How do I check the timing myself? I thought you needed a strobe or something for it?

 

[VAG-Slag]

No, you're thinking of oldskool ignition timing... there's a notch in the bottom pull which aligns up with a a notch in the lower belt cover (roughly 12 o'clock) and a mark on the cam pulley and can cover that should align.

Probably won't have to look to hard to find a diagram or a few pictures of the timing marks somewhere...

 

[Imola-S3]

I'd recommend you tell them immediately that as soon as you collect your car from them that you're taking it to another garage to have everything inspected.

That should put the sh!ts up them because they won't want their reputation tarnished amongst others in the same trade. It'll put their work under immediate scrutiny and they'll want to ensure everything is done right to avoid this.

 

[VAG-Slag]

And yea, phone em.... I'm tempted to phone them my self on your behalf!

 

[MarkS_S3]

Ok so I called the audi dealer and asked them where the sensor was located and what they found was the most common issue with that fault code. Lo and behold the first thing they asked was if the timing was out a tooth on the belt! I also asked them how much they charge for this type of service, they need my chassis number for an accurate figure but they gave me a ballpark of £599 down the phone.

So by the sound of it, I could've gone to audi got a dealer stamp in the book, got the work done properly first time and saved myself a couple bucks at the same time.

I called the garage back and told them I don't want to pay for a sensor that was working before it went to them and that shouldn't have been damaged because of where it's located and the guy seemed to agree, although he's adamant that the timing belt is on right because they've done thousands of timing belts...

I should get the car back tomorrow so we'll see what it's like then I guess.