I broke down yesterday! I started the car ok, reversed out my parking bay, but I hardly had any power, I went to pull away and the car cut out. I managed to restart it after a few tries, but it sounded as if it was about to stall, reved it for a minute, but then when I went to drive off it cut out. A friend of mine said there was black smoke coming from the exhaust. I now can't get the car to start at all, it's trying to start/turning over, but not starting. I presume the timing chain has now gone!!
I was hoping my problem was going to be a cheap fix, just a bad sensor, injector or air leak causing misfires, I was hoping it wasn't the timing chain, as the car was still drivable.
I should have took the cam cover off and checked the chain before anything else, but I was waiting for a new cam cover gasket to arrive by post before I took the cover off, as there has been oil leaking. I was also waiting for a friend of mine to be free, who is an ex mechanic, just in case the chain just needed re-aligning.
I guess I'll soon confirm if the chain has snapped/come off, when the cam cover comes off this weekend!!