was the engine warmed up when you did the ignition timing?
did you jump the service connector?

not doing one of these things could cause not being able to reach the red mark

 

I just had my timing belt replaced about 3k miles ago through a mechanic. I made sure the radiator fan was on and the black and brown wires on the ses connectors were shorted. the cel came on after that. it seems to be running a little smoother, but now i'm wondering if the mechanic didn't install the belt correctly.

 

yea, that's probably it
he probably installed it off a tooth by accident

 

I just looked at my receipt and it was about 7 months ago when I had that done. However, it's only been about 5000 miles. I'm pretty sure if I told them they would charge me again to re-do it, so I'm out of luck.

 

Did the problem exist immediately after the timing belt job or did it occur later?

 

It started happening about 2-3 months ago and gradually got worse. The timing belt was changed out in March.

 

Was a new timing belt tensioner installed along with the new timing belt? It's possible that the timing belt was not properly tensioned when installed. Before you check the timing belt, verify that the ignition timing really cannot be set to spec.

 

Yeah, they did the timing belt, tensioner, and water pump. I'll re-check the ignition timing today. Thanks for your help!

 

I verified again that the distributor is retarded as much as it can go, and the red line is still slightly off. I was going to shoot a video or take a picture, but I ran out of light so it was impossible to see. The car does seem to be running better now as far as smoother accelerations, but I'm still concerned about still having the timing slightly off.

 

If the ignition timing is not too far off, for example still within the group of three marks, perhaps the setting is fine.