incompetent mechanic, wacky coincidence or total paranoia?

[thirdman]

My regular mechanic, whom I now hate for various reasons, recently changed my belts for me (including timing belt and water pump).

Now my timing belt cover is rubbing on the pulley and the belt tensioner for the AC is making angry noises.

Did my ex-mechanic screw something up, is this a total coincidence, or am I just being paranoid? How hard/easy would it be to mess up the timing belt cover? (Forgive me, I am a bit automechanically dumb.)

I'll try to throw up a pic or two asap.

[neanderpaul]

I've seen many many warped festiva timing covers. It probably isn't his fault. Anybody else want to chime in here?

[jglutz]

^^Yeah they can be tricky....especially if the gasket on the cover has been changed.
The gasket needs to be glued/tacked in place before the cover is re-installed; otherwise the gasket pops out and the cover just won't snap in place.

[mechanicaldj]

good possibility that he may have over-tightened the a/c belt to make the bearing go bad

[Icedawg]

^^^Also a good chance the bearing just wore out at the wrong moment. There is a reson dealership shops try to talk you into changing a bunch more things than are broken when they open some part of the car up. (Eg, water pump, tensioning pulley's when they do the timing belt) It's 'cause this sort of thing may happen as coincidence right after they put it back together. 'course they don't mind the extra business either, but they aren't just making it up. I've had parts fail 3 to 6 months later and found myself wishing they had just suggested replacing everything at the time of the initial job, 'cause its the labour that kills you on price. An apprentice, or staff who have not worked on your car before, can make mistakes too. You can probably make that case on the cover, but not on the bearing.

[thirdman]

Yeah, I'd let the bearing slide, but I have just confirmed that they removed and did not replace the timing cover gasket, either. If nothing else, that is pretty lame.

(I have other reasons to hate this particular mechanic...)

Now I just gotta hunt down a new one.