So forgot to update this awhile ago. Seeing how the timing problem came back I thought I would update.
As the timing went bad on a trip to BC/Vancouver last Summee, my mechanic slightly wondered if the engine might have rolled backwards at any point. He took the time to retire the engine one more time for free, but advised if the timing goes again we will likely need to do the lower chain.
It's almost 1 year to to the day but the same timing problems are coming up when it comes to engine starting. Ran good for a whole year and we got about 18,000kms on that 2nd timing before the issue came back.
The only code it is throwing for now is p0011 so I wonder if it is just related to the cam adjuster tho? The last time around it never threw the p0011 code.
I'm now in an awkward spot of deciding what I want to do. I already sunk money in buying the car used for a decent discount from the past owner. (My mistake for not researching but if I had known how extensice the full timing job was, I would have asked for the car for free)
I'm also in a few thousand for the work done on the initial diagnosis and upper chain repair.
My gfs dad has his own garage/lift in Winnipeg and I'm now thinking I take a week of vacation and hammer out the rest of my repairs myself. I'm afraid of going back to the same garage to pay the high labour rates, as the lower change will be a lot of labour hours for removing the tranny.
At 214,000ish kms, the csr is maybe worth $5500 at this point. I already have a 2nd car (2010 Corolla) as well as $6000 in my car repair/replacement fund.
I'm just wondering if chasing this repair is worth. Chalk it up to an expensive lesson on proper research of timing chain replacements and move on?
I dont rely on it for a daily driver as I have the Corolla still.