Hi all,
Haven't posted in a while but need some help!
Long story short (kind of): Had my water pump and timing belt replaced around 100k, no problems. Water pump decides to start leaking around 133k, so it needs to be replaced again unfortunately. The shop felt that it would be good to do the timing belt again while they were in there, so I said OK (only a bit more in parts at that point).
I get the car back, and now have a noticeable lack of power at lower rpm's, lower mpg, and an odd intermittent knocking noise from the engine. Took the car back to the shop and they had to re-tension the belt, apparently they had set it below spec. So the noise is gone, but I still have no power and lower mpg. I took the car back to the shop again with this complaint, and they couldn't find anything wrong.
So I'm frustrated at this point. I know something is wrong, but I'm not sure what it could be. I was thinking the timing is off, but you would hope they checked for that when I brought it back the second time. It feels like going back to that shop is pointless now, unfortunately.
I also have a Scangauge which backs up my perceived lack of power: It has a feature called "load", which indicates how much power you are using out of how much you have available at any rpm. Previously, my load would go to 100% at any rpm if I stepped on it. Now, it only gets to 89% at lower rpm, and barely reaches 100% at redline. Basically, the lower the rpm, the greater the power loss. Mpg is also down from 19.5 to barely 17, with the same exact driving.
Any insight or advice would be very helpful! I just want my car back the way it was, it's frustrating to drive as is. Thanks!