That would be the cam belt!

[Stu Faulkner]

Driving to work today in my daily

 

 

Cute aint it.

 

As I pulled off the M6 onto the Aston express way (Yep thats the spagetti junction) the car was fine until I used the throttle when it felt sloggish and was slowwing down.

I was lucky enough to pull onto the slip road and stop with a dead engine engine, the starter just made a wizzing noise.

After I nearly got hit by a woman who didn't see the orange thing with hazards, the RAC turned up and when he turned the engine I noticed the alternator turning but not the pulley on the Cam shaft,

 

So as in the title 'that would be the cam belt'

 

After I got it home about five hours later and took it to bits I found this

 

 

I,m now going to order a new belt, fit it, turn it by hand and fire it up.

 

What do you think are the chances?

The engine didn't go bang or clatter it just lost power/stopped and the bottom end turns and i can feel compression so do i feel lucky and buy a lottery ticket?

 

 

[AdamR]

Slim... The bottom end will have been kept turning by momentum / gearbox, top end will have been stationary.

 

I had a similar thing on a Fiesta, didn't clatter, just lost power. Cambelt pulley bearing had failed, cambelt come off, whole lot had gone mush

 

Fingers crossed for you though!

[Cleggy the Spyder Man]

destroyed my old Citroen C8 when this happened - no clatter or bangs just glided to a halt

 

Hope you have a better outcome

[Stu Faulkner]

I think it will need a head replacement.

If I.m lucky it won't have marked the pistons too much but I expect a bent exhaust valve or two.

 

Would anyone have a diagram of the timing marks for the cambelt?

I can see holes for pegs and a vee in the crank but just want to be sure.

[Man On The Clapham Omnibus]

My son had an Audi TT 225 which Audi said at the time had a life of 80k for the cam belt. At about 65k it did exactly what yours did - stripped the teeth. Fortunately for him he had a warranty and they picked up most of the bill. I won't say how much it was because I don't want to make a bad day even worse. Sorry....

[pistonbroke]

Same thing with my Mondano , thought it was the speed hump I'd just run over , engine died , got it home stripped down valves bent valve seats wrecked , piston holed were valve met it on way down as piston was on way up .

 

cost of repair was more than car was worth , gutted cos had just had MOT 1 week ago and 4 new Michelins all round , only done 80,000 too , nothing for a diesel . Had the belt replaced at 60,000 as per schedule but forgot the "time" element as its 60,000 or 5 ? years and with the low mileage forgot the years ( A*** emoticon)

 

never buy 2nd hand now unless a new belt is fitted pre purchase , its the only sure way to know the thing is good to go 

[Stu Faulkner]

I took the head of as I'm never that lucky.

 

 

All eight valves bent and slightly open.   they are supposed to be closed in the picture.

 

On the plus side the bottom end is fine. The inlet valves have lft slight marks on the pistons but not what you would call damage, I guess the weak link is the valves.

 

I have got a 2nd hand head for £60 and £80 for the gaskets and belt so it could have been worse.

[Man On The Clapham Omnibus]

Same thing with my Mondano , thought it was the speed hump I'd just run over , engine died , got it home stripped down valves bent valve seats wrecked , piston holed were valve met it on way down as piston was on way up .

 

cost of repair was more than car was worth , gutted cos had just had MOT 1 week ago and 4 new Michelins all round , only done 80,000 too , nothing for a diesel . Had the belt replaced at 60,000 as per schedule but forgot the "time" element as its 60,000 or 5 ? years and with the low mileage forgot the years ( A*** emoticon)

 

never buy 2nd hand now unless a new belt is fitted pre purchase , its the only sure way to know the thing is good to go 

 

 

I bought a Mk1 TD Mondeo (1996) with 134,000 miles on it. The first act was to get the belt changed. I drove it to 200,000 (one more belt) and my daughter to 230,000 before some idiot drove into it and wrote it off. Ever since I've had chain cam cars (Mk3 Mondeo now with said daughter), and 2.2D X-Type. My Z3 is chain cam too. Belts were a retrograde step IMHO. Of course my Pinto Westfield is belt driven cam but non-interference.

[Stuart]

First of all check if it's an interference engine.  If not then you're OK.  I've also had interference engines escape when the belt has failed on tickover, but if it's one of those and was revving then it's minimum bent valves, knackered valve seats and possible piston damage.

[Lyonspride]

 

never buy 2nd hand now unless a new belt is fitted pre purchase , its the only sure way to know the thing is good to go 

 

You can never trust someone who's just trying to sell a car, IF they actually had the cambelt done pre-sale, they probably only changed the belt itself (cheap), leaving the pulleys, tensioner and water pump alone.

In my experience the belts rarely fail on their own, usually it's the tensioner (you can hear this going months before it lets go), but sometimes a water pump can seize or a pulley can fail.

 

I'd buy a car regardless of the cambelt, because I know for sure i'd have the full cambelt kit done within a couple of weeks. It's the only way to get peace of mind.

 

I've physically seen main dealers filling up service books with stamps, on their used vehicles, falsifying service records. If a franchised dealer would do this, then you can guess how much i'd trust anyone with a cambelt.

[Stu Faulkner]

Fixed it all a few weeks ago and its been running fine but ticking over realy low.

The C3 is drive by wire and there isn't any way of turning it up.

Finally found the problem, Air leak on one of the injector rubber seals.

It had some how twisted and squashed flat in the hole, amazing how a 20p bit of rubber makes it tick over crap

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

Always good when it's only something simple.