went to fix a hijet....

Went to fix a hijet in telford today, and turns into the typical saga.

Guy rang me up to buy a cam sensor, as that was the latest diagnosis by an auto electrician.

I have a play, sounds like a bag of spanners.

It's not injecting or sparking.

Check the cam sensor which tests out fine. Fix an earth point. Still no injection or spark.

Take out the cam sensor, watch the end of the cam as the bloke turns the key..... Cam is not rotating!

So take off the cam belt covers, that looks fine at that end, turn the key and the belt end rotates.

Diagnosis is a snapped cam shaft.... Known a couple to do this.


How the help do people call themselves garages and auto electricians, take peoples money and not have a clue what they are doing???

On top of that, this is a replacement engine bought from an engine specialist. Nice £400 pile of scrap they've bought! I really hope they can get a refund but I wouldn't hold my breath.

So people, tread carefully in this world, as now I think the garages are going to want paying for not fixing it too!

Stupid me has agreed to take delivery of this van and get them sorted, all I need now is a decent engine.

Will probably need a head PFM as valves will likely be bent, valve seats may be damaged Pistons may have sustained damage. Glad its not mine or my job to do either. Getting too old for that.

I had a Pinto engined (OHC) Sierra that ran like a bag of nails and that turned out to be the same but the break was a diaganol one and both halves of the cam were turning. 
I couldnt believe what I was seeing when I took the cam cover off and ran the engine.

I'm going to piece together what I can for them.

If the cam has snapped then the journals will be mullered, thats why it snapped due to lack of oil - well that's always been the case with every other snapped cam engine I've ever seen.

Then you have to ask yourself why the oil pressure wasn't there.

At the same time, they deserve a refund on that engine, so I'm not stripping it.

I have a bottom end knocking about, and maybe a head - but I'll have to do some inspection work to see if its usable.

Second hand engines are a funny game. I will never fit a second hand engine I haven't stripped down. But then the breakers won't give me a refund if it turns out the engine is mullered once i've taken it to bits.

Catch 22.

On the subject of bottom end probs Matt, do you know of a source for
Hi-Jet oil pumps--- other than the dealers??

Nope!

Never tried.

How useful am I?!

What a stupid question from the Country's most knowledgeable man on
Hi-Jets. You are worth your weight in gold Matt.

Hell yeah i'm going to cash4scrapgold.com my growing belly!!