28/10/2021
Janine brought her Honda in, to diagnose why the engine check lamp was staying on the dash. We followed our diagnostics prosses, by confirming there wasn’t any electrical fault in the engine. With a strong suspicion her car had a stretched timing chain. We carried out an oscilloscope patten test which confirmed our suspicion, by checking the correlation between the camshaft and crankshaft position in relation to the valve timing. With this information and estimated cost of repairs Janine was able to make an informed decision.
When a timing chain is loose or stretched, you might experience misfires while driving, hard to start engine, engine check/malfunction warning lamp on dash because the timing between the valves and pistons is out of sync, which affects the combustion in the engine. A stretched chain can skip a gear on the cam or crankshaft so that the engine's timing falls out of calibration. It connects the crankshaft to the camshaft. The metal links in the chain move on the tooth sprockets on the end of the crankshaft and camshaft so that they rotate together. It is important to change engine oil at regular maintenance intervals to avoid wear in the timing chain components as it relies on constant lubrication.
