Hi All,

I had a timing service done by my trustworthy mechanic shortly after I got my brick. Ever since, my engine was making growling and rumbling noise. I knew my car sounded different but since I didn't know much about this car I thought it was ok. As time went on, it got worse.

Based on my research, I came to these three possible leads.
1. Hole in exhaust header; I didn't know what it sounded like until I drove one... So I took this off from my list.
2. Failing drive train components; I checked and everything looks good and felt good. Same thing here, I took it off from my list.
3. Harmonic balancer; I didn't put the white marking but I thought maybe this was going south and making all that noise.

So there I was trying to replace my harmonic balancer and ended up changing my timing belt along with it. Here are few things to mention.
1. My mechanic over tightened the crankshaft pulley bolt. During the process, I broke my HFT 1/2" ratchet and bent my breaker bar. At one point, I was standing on top of the engine compartment, pressed down slowly with my foot. That didn't work. I had my breaker bar perpendicular to the ground and hold it along my body/hands and pressed against using my glute/leg muscles.
2. Crankshaft and camshaft timing marks never aligned, I had to rotate either cam/crankshaft to slide my crank shaft holder tool in place. No wonder...
3. Since, this was my first time. I was so confused??? Of course, I put it wrong, the car ran really bad. I had to redo. It looked like I missed two teeth.
4. During my second try, I realize that my mechanic marked the camshaft timing mark in the wrong place (see "A"). New cover was provided by me without any markings when he changed. I had to go by marks on my new timing belt. I started to align new belt from the crankshaft and worked my way up and it worked. I scribed the new cam marking next to the old (see "B").
5. My old timing belt had only 40k but I decide to change due to stress marks throughout the entire belt. My local Volvo part specialist told me that it can go up to 70k belt. I was planning to change on every 50k. I left my old tensioner alone since it was changed by mechanic as well all three seals looked good.







Did I damage the engine? I ran it like that for 40k miles.... It runs fine for now; gets 25-27mpg & no oil consumption. There is no more noise but I don't know whether that was from bad timing belt installation or failling harmonic balancer...

No, I am not mad at my mechanic, we all make mistakes. I am just glad that my Volvo is very forgiving. Now, I am ready to try that rope trick next time. ;-)

Forgot to mention, I would haven't come this far without you guys. Thank you!!!