We are starting to see more and more vehicles coming into the garage with engine timing faults caused by stretched timing chains.

The first thing customers complain of is that their Engine Management Light (EML) comes on and the vehicle goes into limp mode, sometimes they may complain of the chain being noisy or rattling.

Once the car comes into the garage we plug it into a suitable diagnostic computer and carry out an ‘engine code read’ looking for codes relating to timing faults for example – Incoherence between crank and cam sensors, then check the cars ‘live data’ to check the sensors are working correctly.

Next we have to partially strip the engine to be able to physically check the timing using manufacturer specific timing tools.

In this instance when we came to fit the timing tools it became very obvious that the timing was indeed out, when we checked the old chain against the replacement chain we could see it had stretched by about 10mm.

Once we had fitted the new timing chain kit and timed the engine correctly it was just a matter of rebuilding the engine, changing the oil and filter and then testing.

After clearing all the stored codes from the cars ECU it was time to road test the car and carry out a few final checks, once we were completely happy it was time to hand the car back to the customer.