# Engine Timing problem (1.6 1F Motronic engine)



## Ferfire9 (Sep 11, 2017)

Hello people present in this forum. I am writing here because after so manny years of reading lots of information here, i think this is one valid option for help for anyone, and now that i am having a problem timing my engine, i decided to make an account to ask for help, because no matter how much i look and search on the internet, i still couldnt find the solution for my case. I took some photos and i will describe the best i can whats going on. 
I have a Seat Toledo 1.6 (1F) with monopoint injector (motronic) system. This car if you dont know, its 1996, based on golf platform, its almost identical mechanical wise to golf 2 and 3. Mine is a facelift model, pos 1996. So its very similiar to GOLF 3. 
The problem is : 2 weeks ago, the car was running fine, but the timing belt already had a few years and was showing signs of wear already, so i decided to take it to a mechanic to change it. The mechanic changed it and togheter with the water pump and other belts. But right after leaving the garage, i noticed the car was not ok, it was running poorly, the rpms on startup would jump to 2k rpm which was not normal, on cold, it would normally jump to 1250 max. No only that, i had not the power it used to have, the car was also making some new noises on the exhaust and the engine was stalling almost when stopping, the rpms fall down too much (sub 500 rpm). Also on idling it looked like it was misfiring, because i heard irregular sounds on exhaust. The next day i took it to the mechanic again but he refused he made something bad, first he said it was the coolant temperature sensor, then after i refused that because i have tested it just 1 month ago, he then insisted it was the distributor that going bad. I can already see he is not honest at all, he then a few hours later chcked the timing belt again and said it was ok. I had no solution other than get the car as it was home. SO i deciced to look on the intenet and learn how to change the belt myself, that's what i did, bust first i checked the marks and the distributor, the flywheel on tdc mark in the plug hole in the transmission was lined with the 0 that apperas in there, and checking the other marks, the camshaft sprocket o/t mark was half a tooth retarded (to the left) but i think its no big deal. Then i checked the distributor and it was a few mm to the right of the 1# cylinder notch. So teoretically the timing was a few degrees advanced, i decided to unscrew the 13 mm bolt securing the disitributor and rotate the shell to match the rotor. I went for a ride and the car had no power, it was running slugish, the idle rpms were ok, but under load was a misery. Then i advanced the timing rotating the distributor again and tested. The engine didnt sound as before and the rpms were fallling again when pressing the clutch wanting to stall. I had to take the whole belt out, aligned it ok, camshaft was on tdc, crankshaft aswell 12 and 6 oclock, flywheel was on 0(tdc). Aligned the distributor but first also aligned the rotating notch on the base of the dstributor to be horizontal or paralel to the engine block. Set the rotor to 1#position and put the belt on, made sure the belt didnt turn by hand more than 90º degrees, rotated the crank by hand 3 or 4 times, all was acceptable unless that no matter what i did(i took belt multiple times off the reajust), the tdc marks could never be perfect...the flywheel on tdc made the camshaft 1/4 of teeth retarded(no big deal ?) and the distributor or would be advanced a few degrees or retarded . I ended up with the following config. Flywheel almost matched to the camshaft tdc(just slightly(few mm ) off. The distributor was afew mm retarded, (1 or 2 mm). Went for a test ride, and no power at all, once again i rotated the distributor to advance the timing a few degrees, and the car had power, idle sound now as stable as before, and rpms falling to the stall point when pressing clutch when driving. On diel there were okay though, unless i rev it to 4k or smthg and the rpm would again sometimes fall to sub 500 rpms. I am currrently playing with the distributor to advance(some degrees more or less) but still cant find a solution. I believe the distributor cap is a bit worn out, but before i never had a problem with this...I wil leave here some photos of the current setup. Thank you in advance for your help.










https://imgur.com/a/qVV4K


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