Last week I had the water pump and thermostat replaced on my 2003 Cavalier. the engine is now making a noise and has a fairly harsh vibration at low rpm. I took it back to the place that did the repairs and they are saying now that the timing chain and the balance shafts need replaced. The car was fine otherwise before I had the water pump replaced and I feel as though perhaps they did not do a proper repair. any thoughts?

Asked by topher831 Dec 15, 2012 at 03:48 PM about the 2003 Chevrolet Cavalier LS Sedan FWD

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

new water pump, now bad timing chain

6 Answers

69,055

Balance shafts only go bad when they are broken, nothing touches it to make become unbalanced and its gear driven off the cam so it isn't going to slip. Only way to break it is if it was removed then dropped and removing it isnt a quick job. Take it somewhere else and get a second opinion. Before you do that just look around to make sure everything was plugged back in.

no the check engine light isn't on. I'll take it somewhere else to have it looked at also. Other than leaking coolant, there were no problems with the engine before they replaced the water pump. It does have 116k on it, but its been well kept. If there were a noise or vibration that just got a little worse i wouldn't be so worried. There was nothing, now this happens immediately after work was done. I got a bad feeling when he told me so fast the second time what was causing the new problem

69,055

Timing chains tend to snap or progressively stretch over time, causing a slow progressing issue. For it to slip a gear it would have to have been quite loose and would have probably already bent a valve.

1 people found this helpful.
5,695

it is highly likely that they messed it up the water pump is driven off of the balance chain and the timing chain is in front of that i just did one last week and i also did one on my car like 5 months ago mine was hecktic i replace all timing components day later the pump stated leaking so i went back in and snuck the water pump out not messing a whole lot with the timing saved me 3 hours on that job

2 people found this helpful.
100

I have a ???? I have a 2003 chevy cavalier i dont understand why i have my heat tempeture on my dash if a i have water&oil at level....

4 people found this helpful.

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