After 10 months of car back and forth to other less competent dealers, Wilsons (good job chaps) have diagnosed the cabin shake on idle as an incorrectly fitted cambelt. The pulley controlling the exhaust valves was one tooth out of position.

Question is this, is the engine likely to have suffered any/ much damage as a result?

Car is MY99 and the cambelt was fitted by Osbournes (no longer with us) and checked four times (yes, four times) by the useless Days of Chelmsford who only ever checked for ECU fault codes.

Blobster

 

It should be ok, sometimes a belt can jump 2 teeth, many more than that & you'll end up with the possibility of a bent valve or 2 or 3 or more......

 

Impossible to say, but if it's been like it for 10 months then you've probably got away with it, I don't know whether the scoob is valve-safe or not (ie if the cambelt snaps is there sufficient clearance between the valves and the pistons). Surely you noticed a drop in performance as well as the juddering at idle? If the car's been constantly over-fuelling to compensate you might not have done your cat any favours.

 

AFAIK more than two teeth causes valve interference even when you change cambelt it's possible to happen!
JIM