[bobbobsley]

sorry for bad grammar im at work and have to type fast, car started Idling really rough So took it to a mechanic It pulled up 19 codes, he said it shouldnt be running with that amount so he reset it and the first code that came up was cam shaft so the tried replacing that but that wasnt the problem, so he put my camshaft back on and found that timing was off really bad an said the belt was shredded so he replaced the belt the water pump and the ignition coils and spark plugs for $416.00 the car is still running badly like when i took it in he said it bent a valve and it would cost about $650 to fix i looked around on the internet researching valves and I saw one test where you could put paper on your exhaust and its pulling and blowing the paper back and forth and popping it I want on know if this is the valve or is it safe to drive it like this and could their be other problems, could he have actually saw that the valve was bent when changing the timing belt or is he just guessing from how its acting and the code now is for valve 2 it is a 2001 volvo s40 with 129000 miles this was first time the timing belt was changed

 

[BHart]

I am suspicuious by nature. By the way you describe it, it may be the mechanic at fault.

He should have noticed the shredded belt when he was working on the cam and 'tried replacing that' so that's suspicious. Replacing the water pump? if it was seized, it would have overheated, shredded the belt along with a whole lot of noise - you would have noticed that. Coils & plugs...it would show a code for one or two not working, but all of them?

You won't have a code that's specific to a valve so that's suspicious too. No, you can't see if a valve is bent from the outside but a compression test of the cylinders will tell if the compression is similar on all cyliners or if one is low (possibly indicating a bent or burnt valve).

I'm not sure your mechanic is being honest or he is not explaining things to you clearly. I would get a second opinion. This guy could cost you lots of money.