93 Celica Timing Belt + Distributor Is the Shop telling the truth?

[jamesbrogdon]

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...

[19Celi87]

For starters, you motor is a non-interference engine. How rods and such would get damaged due to the timing belt snapping I don't know.
Your distributor blew as well??? You are right about the cam turning the rotor and not the other way around. Once the timing belt snapped the cams would have stopped turning and thus your distributor arm quit turning the rotor. I'm just saying I've NEVER heard that one.

Plain and simple go else where. The shop where you took it sounds real iffy!
Are they lying? Could be. Or maybe this guy just does not really know Toyotas very well. Either way your not going to get the repair quality you need. I always go to Toyota. The price diff (which is usually not that great) is worth it. The dealer makes money in other ways and is not totally dependant selling you stuff you may not need.

Just my opinion.

[Pineapple]

Tell him he won't get spark until he put the timing belt back on and get the disturbutor turning. No timing belt -> no turning cam -> no turning disy -> no RPM signal -> no spark.
Also ask him how he test for spark. Did he crank the engine without timing belt? To see if he really know anything, ask him if cranking without time blet will cause the piston to hit the open valves. Unless you're there to watch him change the timing belt, I won't trust him not try to do more damage.

[jamesbrogdon]

I did consider taking this to the toyota dealership... as I said it was only $200 to replace the timing belt, and only about an hour labor to change the distributor, but they want $800 (literally) for a new distributor.

The owner of the shop is the guy I'm dealing with. I talked to him again this afternoon. He definately said that (his theory is) the distributor failed, the shaft seized up, this caused the cam to stop moving, which broke the timing belt. Is that possible?

[Pineapple]

Impossible. Go pull the disturbutor and see if it turns. If it ever seized, the timing belt will snap the shaft and keep going. The disturbutor only have a 1/2" shaft.

[19Celi87]

Run! Run! The owner of the shop wants a pool in his backyard before summer. Has the Toyota dealer seen your car, or did you just call to get price? That last log you posted stating what the owner said is just what the next post stated. . .impossible.
Well...truth be known, nothing is impossible, this is just really really improbable.

[19Celi87]

You know re-reading your post. . .If the distrib froze it would just spin out. Think about it. . .four pistons and a crank pushing 135 plus horse, and a belt designed to turn the whole mess all ruined by a small piece of aluminum with a plastic cover and some wires coming out of it? OK flat out BULLSHIT.
This issue was just strange enough to make me keep second guessing myself.

This 'theory' of his was not well thought out. But I'll bet he sees it all the time.

Go else where. Period.

[BrightTundra04]

Ok hang on a second guys.. has the timing belt ever been changed before?? If not you were being a little too trust worthy of the car in the first place if its only been 61K then you were due to change it anyway. if the belt is that old the dis. locking up could cause the belt to break. BUT before you spend the $$$ tell the guy you want to see the dis. and try to turn it if it does turn take it somewhere else if it doesn't turn then do what he says and replace it.

[Pineapple]

Basically you can't really get the disy to seize. Oil from the engine does go into disy shaft. First sign of problem is disy pissing oil out which will keep the bearing lubed. If you have taken one apart, you'll know. Even if the bearing seized, the engine will have enough power to spin it inside the alum housing.
Its not that easy to snap a timing belt. Even like this its still running:

[maxpower_hd]

His theory doesn't seem to sound to me either. However, if the distributor is indeed siezed, you could always go with a used one from the local salvage yard. It would probably be in the neighberhood of $25 if you pull it.

[A Diddy]

pineapple knows his shit, listen to him!

[jamesbrogdon]

We don't have any maintenance records on the car, but she's driven it at least 30k without replacing the timing belt.. and as I said above the car has 118k on it.

I was looking at pictures of the dist. online and seeing how small it is made me think that his theory wasn't right... The only thing I could come up with is that maybe he's thinking of it backwards... that what happened is the timing belt broke and that made the cam turn funny and that broke the distributor.. I guess I'll go down to the shop and look and see if the shaft on the distributor is froze a/o if it's broken off. I appreciate all the help guys I will keep you updated.

[sameerb1]

tell him to change the timing belt and then see if the distributor has a problem or not!

[BlckShadow]

it may not be easy to snap a timing belt, but i kno for a fact that its not hard to strip the teeth off of it. if it has enough mileage a/o wear something as simple as reving it to high will destroy it. my car with original timing belt stripped every last tooth off of it just from reving the engine up to 6000 rpm while driving

[maxpower_hd]

James,

Any word on the timing belt and distributor. I'm curious to know the outcome.