93 Celica Timing Belt + Distributor Is the Shop telling the truth?
Hey guys I'm a visitor to ToyotaNation and have a question on my girlfriend's car... 1993 Celica GT (2.2L) automatic, 118k. She was driving down the road and heard a sound from the front passenger side? of the engine compartment, said it sounded like a bird or small animal hit her car. Car died and she coasted to a stop, would not restart.
I had it towed to a local mechanic shop, on the phone the next morning he said the timing belt was broke, which is what it sounded like to me anyway; that's fine. The kicker is he says the car is getting no spark currently, and that the distributor also needs to be replaced. He says what probably happened is that the distributor shaft locked up and caused one of the cams to stop moving abruptly, thus breaking the already worn out timing belt.
This doesn't make sense to me... I thought the cam turned the distributor not the other way around? I've never had a vehicle taken to this shop (the owner seems knowledgable and pretty decent but who knows). He wants a little over $200 to change the timing belt (about the same price as the dealership). I asked him point blank "What would happen if we just put the timing belt on?" He said "The car won't start" because it doesn't have any spark because the distributor is bad. The distributor is $337 installed (I assume for aftermarket). He also said that after the timing belt/distributor is installed if the car has bent valves/pushrods and we dont want to fix the car, he would take the distributor back off and return it no charge.
Let me know what you guys think...
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