Recently bought a puma, VCT FAULT CODE

Hi all, so I'm new to the Puma owners club having only owned the car for just over a week now, when I bought the car all seemed normal, it pulled like a train no issues what so ever. It wasn't until the following afternoon that I noticed the car had lost pretty much all power throughout the rev range, at 3500rpm the VCT kicks in and the cars starts to miss fire only a little through the rest of the rev range. So getting back to work, I plugged her in and I got the code P1383 "Variable cam timing overretarded (bank 1)".

So for the hell of it I changed the CAM sensor, cleared the code and took her for a test drive, all seemed good and then I lost power again, this time I noticed it was when the car had WARMED UP. Upon getting her back to the garage I revved the car in neutral and there was no sign's of loss of power or miss fires. THOUGH UNDER FULL THROTTLE IT DOES SOUND LIKE I HAVE A K&N FILTER ON THE CAR.

So I plugged the car back in and this time I got the fault codes P1381 "Variable CAM timing OVERADVANCED". So come the following morning I went to start the car it it didn't seem to want to start, after about a minute of cranking she finally fired up and was running as normal again. Well not normal but as if it never had trouble starting. Got to work, plugged her in again and came up with another fault p0460 "Fuel Level sensor circuit malfunction" as well as the p1381 code. Since then its only had trouble starting once more.

So by my logic the timing can't be out, why would changing the cam senor cause the timing to go from overretarded to overadvanced? But I am going to check the timing this weekend (YES I have the tool !)

Why does it only loose power and miss fire when warm?

I cannot find sign's of a headgasket leak, if it is leaking it is at very early stages!

Any help right now would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance !

If you're going to the trouble of timing it, check for play in the pulley with the belt off. From rest it should be firm, you can turn against the spring inside the pulley, again there should be no looseness or play.

And also check the position of the slot at the bottom of the belt tensioner against Gates technical bulletin # 036.
Barry

Okay thanks guys! Will be checking these on Saturday I'll keep you posted!

Just in case anyone looks at this post....

Fixed the problem, inlet cam was over advanced and the timing belt tensioner was fitter incorrectly annd someone had snapped the slot at the back of the cam so it was a pig of a job to get timed correctly!! But just come back from the test drive and seems to be running sweet as a nut again!! What I did:
Locked the exhaust cam in place, locked the crank, loosened off cam pulleys, took the tension off the belt and used a 4.5mm drill bit to hold the tensioner, slipped the belt off the cams and lined the inlet cam up with the exhaust and I managed to get the plate in enough to secure it in place, tightened the inlet pulley just enough so that I could check if it was springing back into position, slackened the inlet pulley back off, fitted timing belt, tensioned the belt, tightened both pulleys (exhaust 65Nm-125nm inlet)removed locking tools, tightened up timing belt tensioner, rotated crank twice, locked up crank, checked position of cams and Bob's your uncle.