got cambelt and water pump changed - not happy

i received my car back yesterday from a garage. it was really early in morning so no one about and didn't get to speak to anyone..

it was a "gates" belt n pump kit  and now the car whines like a b'stard, plus an annoying squeek.

i have checked the tension and it genuinely looks and feels fine.

i just can't live with it the way it is now. taking it back to garage tomorrow,

i ran it without the cambelt cover on and watched the inside face (where the teeth are) and every time the squeek happens

i can momentarily see the teeth, its like the belt is not going round in a constant speed if you know what i mean?

could this be a tooth out or timing issue?

i feel sick to my stomach going from a car i loved to drive about to one i cant stand in a couple of days.

i know (now) the gates belts have a bad rep for whine.

any advice before i put a match to the car?

-z

Gates are a very good company & make excellent products. I suspect the garage has overtightened the belt too much

That whine is an overtightened belt it only needs to be slightly too tight to make a noise. Gates belts are good I have one on mine and I'm sure a lot of others on here do too.

Any whine from your gates belt(s)
there are quite a number of Google threads about noisy gates belts.
What about the squeek  I mentioned?

Any ideas?

Thanks for replies.

tensioner will be to tight if the belt is to tight

thats where the noise could be coming from

The tensioner is the water pump. Sometimes people do not adjust the water pump to re-tension the belt just slide the old one off and slide the new one on, adjusting the water pump can be risky in the sense of creating a leak, which does happen. I myself have done this a couple of times on my golf and the tension was perfect however last time it had a new water pump and so was tensioned correctly.
The belt should twist to not far under 90 degrees for the correct tension.
Check it definitely is the cambelt and not the alternator belt by lightly powdering the alt belt with talc. Make sure the cover that covers the water pump is fitted correctly and not distorted/fouling.
If you are concerned about the timing it's real easy to check, just line up the line on the crank aux pulley to the 2nd notch in (tdc) on the pointer above crank pulley, the camshaft sprocket has a small dot which lines up with a finger at the bottom for the pully, it is actually part of the cover that covers the water pump.

Personally I think you should take it back to the garage and tell them the problem.

Its not your cars fault! don't disown her,  instead, show her some affection and tell her how you feel for her in this time of stress and worry  

OK, been back to garage and it turns out the mechanic let the tea boy(young lad) carry out the work. not impressed.

it was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay tight.

is there any other seal between pump and block apart from o-ring?

he loosend it slightly and some water came out. took some pressure off the pump pulley. and did it back up.

the noise is about 95% gone, i can live with whats left.

i wont be going back to that garage.

its so hard to find a decent garage/mechanic.

the last garage i was at when i got my focus st serviced couldn't find the 5th spark plug, seriously!

the one before that took it on a 14 mile "test drive"

-z

Obviously it was unsupervised work so you should pay a discounted tea boy rate! Ultimately it could have gone right t!ts up! I would ask for a new belt at least, if the belt had been majorly over tightened and ran for a while then I'd guess at some premature wear! There is no other seal apart from the o-ring, If it had a new water pump then the seal should have been replaced as it comes with the pump, the block should have also been cleaned where the seal and pump fit. It is normal for the seal to weep slightly when slackend, so long as there is no leaks when warmed up and system is under pressure. Do a shout out in the forums for reputable garages in or near your area.

yeah the pump was done at the same time,

i hardly drove it (didn't want to) so i doubt it did much damage or ware, it looked ok when i looked at it today.

what a difference a wrongly tensioned belt can make. it wasn't just the noise, the whole feel and drive of the car was affected, not a nice feeling.

i'm up in inverness and slowly marking off places not to put my cars.

thanks for reply chaps.