The other night while driving home from work (20 mile drive) I noticed my idle sounded just a bit weird, but not enough to cause concern so i just started on my way home. about 5 miles from my house some idiot wasn't driving the speed limit so i slowed down from 60 to 50. after passing the guy up a hill my car was having a real hard time going 60, it would throw its self into 4000 rpm and then back down to 2700 to cruise for about 10 seconds and then loose speed and have to climb back up to 4000 rpm. i slowed back down to 45 and had enough momentum to pull into my half mile long drive way. This is where i knew something was wrong for sure. I sat and idled at a 250-300 rpm, barely keeping the car on and i was hearing a weird rubbing sound coming from my engine compartment, almost like someone had a rug and was shaking it. I popped my hood and just poked and prodded around not really doing anything. I closed my hood and pushed my gas pedal to get going down my road, and nothing happened. I pushed it all the way down to the floor and it barely sputtered up to 1000 rpm and then suddenly it went from 2,000 to nearly redline. I let off the gas and coasted down my road all the way home, thank god my roads downhill. I got home and turned off my car and walked inside to ask my dad (who is a certified car, diesel and turbine engine mechanic) what he thought the problem might be, we thought it could be a dead cylinder. We preformed a spark test and all cylinders passed the test. Then we remembered that last monday friday i had my water pump, timing belt, and tensioner replaced, and for kicks i had them put in a AEM True Time cam gear. That night i looked on the internet and some of the symptoms of having a slipped cam gear matched mine. So yesterday morning i pulled off my valve cover and the top timing belt cover and sure enough it was all the way advanced (12 degrees!) I looked on my timing belt cover and there was a circle where the bolts on the cam gear had rubbed against the inside of the cover. Anyone else out there had this trouble?? I Put the cam gear back on zero and torqued the bolts with a torque wrench down to 18 ft pounds (the instructions that came with the cam gear said 15 ft pounds but no more than 20 so i figured this was safe) Put everything back together and now the car runs just like new. Has anyone had any trouble like this? Are you supposed to break in a cam gear? Anyone ever tightened down those cam gear bolts any tighter? I'm glad i didn't bend any valves or break anything but i wouldn't want to test my luck a second time. Positive feedback is appreciated! If anyone wants to see pictures of it ill post them up.Thanks!
