I need your help in solving an issue I faced during last Saturday timing belt change for my 2.2HDI - 2001 saloon (if there is a similar article on the forum I'm asking an admin to move my thread to the relevant topic): everything was ok during the change and tension setup, I rotated manually the engine twice - I could insert the pins, 10 more engine rotations by hand - again the pins could be inserted and I decide to start asembling everything. I was almost ready with all and right before the final removing of the flywheel pin I had the unfortunate idea of rotating the crankshaft pulley left-right and guess what I found: with the pin in place there was a free play of 3 to 4 teeth measured on the flywheel in the window where you can insert the flywheel locking tool (the one needed when you want to slacken the crankshaft pulley bolt). Unfortunatelly outside it started raining and I had no time to dismantle everything again (early next day I needed the car
![Sad :(](./images/smilies/icon_sad.gif)
Now of course I will schedule a new intervention to doublecheck the issue and solve (if it really is there) but first I need to find out what is wrong, why the engine can be rotated left-right with the pin inserted in the flywheel. Below I highlighted the 8mm pin hole from my spare engine - it is certain that with the pin 'in' you should barely sense any left-right free play (the flywheel has another opposed hole but it is much smaller in diameter - I estimate 6mm max).
What I suspect is a missing 'plate with hole' (hightlighted in yellow in the picture above) from the flywheel and perhaps the pin goes between the 'shoulders' where the plate with the hole should stay?! This would explain the 3-4 teeth estimated free play of the flywheel - in the picture the width of the plate with hole is almost 4 teeth
![Sad :(](./images/smilies/icon_sad.gif)
Anyway the next step for next weekend will be to remove the screw and protection plate from the flywheel locking window, ask an assistant to slowly rotate the engine and carefully inspect the area with locking hole when it appears in the visible field. Hopefully I will find out if that plate is missing or not and which is the reason why I have that free play with the pin inserted in the flywheel...
Meanwhile if anybody has faced a similar issue - any other details are welcome. Or if there is any other method to make sure the engine is at TDC...
Thanks.