bought months ago with 232 thousand + miles on it from the second owner. From what I can tell all they ever did was put gas in it and change the oil. needless to say its nasty. Anyway I decided full tune up with timing belt and water pump were necessary,
had that done at a local shop. couple of months have gone by and it starts acting weird and throwing the weirdest dash lights all at once. I know now that it was because the harmonic balancer was wobbling causing the computer to think all these other systems were having problems. It fell off a week later on the way to take my daughter to daycare. Every time I hit the brakes it was hitting the fan blades I imagine causing a horrible noise. got it home to find this see pictures. I will be taking back the shop that did said work. Is this common?
does the car have too many miles? should a new bolt have been used? Is the shop at fault or is that just the gamble of having such an old car?

 

Sorry to heard about the issues you are having. The problem you've experienced is definitely result of mistake the shop made. It occurred because of one or more of the factors:
1. They should have used a new updated version of the harminic balancer bolt.
2. The bolt was likely not torqued to the requited specifications.
3. Ask them if they lubricated the threads before installing the old bolt. If they say - Yes, then they commuted a third error... That bolt supposed to be installed dry....

The situation has nothing to do with the age of the vehicle or the miles. It's just one of poor luck or a combinatoon of several bad luck events.
I have to admit to having been in that
situation myself after a timing belt job. I installed the bolt, but got distracted and forgot to toghten it to full spec. I can vouch that this vehicle does not like to run with harmonic balancer dangling half way off 🤣

 

Hunter......Just curious about this issue. This bolt is tightened by turning clockwise, and I believe the engine rotates counter-clockwise......so, doesnt just the turning of the engine tend to keep that bolt on tight? Is it wise to use a few drops of locktight when installing that bolt?

In the pic below I am holding the crank pulley/HB fixed with the red tool and then torquing with the torque wrench. Do some mechanics just tighten with an air-wrench and use their "ear" for proper torque specs?



Do you have a picture of what the newly designed bolt looks like?

 

Got the same issue before, but I got it repaired in a store

 

Brett.......The harmonic balancer fell off on your rig too? Do any damage? What vehicle was it?
I guess those Walmart mechanics just took out some gum they were chewing on, and put a big bead of it on the harmonic threads and torqued it back down.

 

The new bolt had a short stubby head. There were issues with people snapping off the heads when removing old bolts, so they redesigned it. Picture is attached below. You are suppose to install that bolt into clean dry threads, no oil, no Loktite, just 140 lb ft torque. It's hard to do without a pulleyv
holder and a big torque wrench. My guess people often just eyeball it instead...

 

Good pic.....yep, alot shorter and thus less chance of snapping it off.