CuriousMe

I just bought a 95 cavalier like a week ago. The same day I got the damn thing it goes out on the E-way. I had to get it towed to my house Mind you this all happend friday night Saturday afternoon my car got toed to the place I bought it from. They first told me that it was a chain in my engine that popped and that they were going to fix it. Okay Monday afternoon I call them and they told me that it was a broken tensioner I dont know if im spelling it right but this specific piece is suppose to hold the timing belt in place. Mind you this was approximately 2pm and they told me that they had to order another tensioner and that they were going to do it when we got off of the phone. Next day approximately 3pm they call me a nd said they rebuilt my whole damn motor yall and that my car was going to be ready to be picked up tommorow. But get this she said that I had to pay her $20 to do an oil change and if I didnt pay $20 for the oil change that I would have sign some papers stating that they werent responsible if anything happened to my motor. Now I called the Attorney General because it dont make sense to me and I was told that it would take approx 5 days to rebuild a motor and that if they did do that that I would have had a n oil change already and a new filter. So does this smell fishy to yall or am I just cold tripping? Help me can somebody enlighten my stupid gullible ass?

jveik

what the hell... there shoulndt be a "tensioner" for a timing chain or belt. that would be just plain stupid. they must have meant you needed a tensioner for your serpentine belt, the one on the OUTSIDE of the engine. if they did all this work and didnt ask you first and its sum huge total, just dont pay it. its not your fault they did some work without telling you first. they are probably just playing you because you obviously dont know much about cars apparently. i would be raisin hell, esp if they claim they rebuilt the motor and they didnt tell me first. i would ask them specifically what they did and ask them to show/explain everything they did and if their explanation doesnt add up, dont pay for the damn thing

jveik

by the way, you should find out if your engine would be damaged if the timing chain or belt or whatever it has broke. some engines will actually make the pistons hit any stuck-open valves, causing major damage, while other engines will not suffer any damage at all. whatever you do, dont ask the dudes that did the work, they will 100 percent say yes it will be damaged, cause they want money lol...

dewaynep

Just FYI. There can be a "tensioner" on a timing belt. It may be spring loaded like a serpentine belt tensioner, or it may be an adjustable idler tensioner that would allow you to adjust for the proper timing belt tension. If this is an interference engine and the timing belt were to jump time or break it could do some serious damage to the pistons and valvetrain resulting in an engine rebuild needing to be done. Ask them if this is the case.