Bogus Mechanic or Genuine Problem
 

Hi Folks, Im posting from Dublin Ireland and I hope someone can help me. I drive a Hyundai Sonata GLS 2001, 2.0 litre automatic with 94,000 miles on the clock. Basically on the 12th Feb I booked it in to have the timing belt changed and the car serviced while it was there. So anyway, i get the car back, mechanic tells me the car is in grand shape no problems, maybe change front brakes in 5k miles.

Then on the following tuesday (of this week), the car when turned on, feels a little funny, i drive a mile or so and stop at roundabout and can feel irregular vibrations eminating from the engine. Then as i begin to pull off from roundabout and give it gas, it holds back for a moment before giving me the power and me and said car shoot off around the roundabout. I get a couple of hundred yards further down the road and vibrations get worse.. Im thinking i better turn around, particularly as the mechanic in question is actually located just back at roundabout.

So i leave it there pick it up later and he gives me (the owner, not the mechanic who has little english) that the balancing belt was out, and if said belt is either up or down and not in correct position will cause this vibration. Thing is when i brought it back the 'mechanic' is looking bemused and starts fiddling with spark plugs for half hour before deciding he needs to hold onto if for a few hours.

So then on thursday, same crap again and thrown in for extra measure the rev's are going nuts when ignition is turned on, the rpm's are idling at around 1.5 on a scale of 0 - 8, but goin up and down with the vibrations. So the owner (not the mechanic again!) tells mer over phone to drop it back and he'll need to speak to Hyundai dealer about whats going on, wtf?! Why does he need to do that, cant he fix it himself? So i ring a friend who instantly tellls me the timing is out and mentions the 'tensioner'? A neighbour and retired mechanic believes its the same problem, without being specific, i.e. timing is out.

So the owner rings me on Friday afternoon and says he spoke to Hyundai and that he will order a tensioner to fix the problem, but it will take a couple of days, so he do that and then get it 'priced up for me'. Im livid at this stage and dont know whether to believe a word coming out of his mouth. Partic as i called in on friday when he wasnt there to grab something from the car and briefly spoke to mechanic in broken enlglish who seemed to be saying he still had no idea what the problem was.


Sorry for the essay but i hope the extra details will enable someone to give me an idea whats going on. Thanks in adance!

Sorry for the late reply. Yes, it sounds like the mechanic doesn't know what he's doing. Hope you got it fixed by now. A hard lesson to learn. You have to be really careful when replacing the timing belt to get all the sprockets lined up exactly correct... no room for error there. To check it, he could remove the top cover off the timing belt, he wouldn't have to remove everything to set it properly.

You problem does sound like the belt for the balance shaft was done wrong or the tensioner has gone bad. This is exactly why I always tell people to go to a Hyundai dealer for that kind of major work, and not to a generic mechanic. Many times there are very specific things that need to be done and a generic mechanic won't know (or ask) if they've never worked on a particular car or engine.

My advice, go to a Hyundai dealer to fix the problem and get the first mechanic to pay the bill for it.