What are the symptoms of bad timing?

[AlexMX3]

Hi I just had my disty replaced and now it seems like sometimes when I start the car one out of every 10 starts it will studder or hesitate but after I shut off the engine and start it again it's fine. could that be due to bas timing?

[mx3autozam]

who replaced the disty? was it a mechanic? I'm sure they would know that you need to adjust the timing.. anyways its not hard to do. Put the car in diagnostic mode and get a timing light, connect it to spark plug wire #1 and watch the light flash when engine is running. You should see the ,marking on the crank pulley. If not loosen the distributor and turn it a bit untill its line up.


In most cases if you put the disty on and pretty much have it level its good, and the ecu will adjust for it, as long as its not off by a mile.