1998 1.9td Broken Tensioner (Won't start) - damy
Hi, my tensioner belt next to the cam belt broke whilst driving. I stopped immediately and barely managed to get the engine to fire up though it was quite noisy!!
I got it towed to a garage who have ahad a look and think that as the ignition will not even turn the engine over that the engine is damadged! This can happen by parts of the tensioner belt flying off underneath the cam belt and throwing the timing out. WHen the car went in it was turning over and did fire after a struggle. Now it is dead when I turn the ignition on, just ignition lights. Please can someone advise what is the likely problem? The car did not overheat or anything, the mechanic advised that he has been manually trying to turn the engine with a spanner and can not even do this!!! I have my doubts!

Edited by Dynamic Dave on 06/01/2009 at 10:06

1998 1.9td Broken Tensioner (Won't start) - RichardW
Sadly it's not unknown for a failed aux drive belt on these engines to find its way way behind the crank pulley and throw the cambelt off - resulting in possibly terminal engine damage (valve /piston contact often breaks the camshaft and one of the bearing caps, but since the caps and matched to the head, the head is then scrap. Cue four figure bill). It's probably worth getting the cambelt covers and rocker cover off to see what the damage is, but you should be prepared to go shopping for a new motor I fear.....
1998 1.9td Broken Tensioner (Won't start) - damy
Thanks for your reply Richard, (happy new year to you too!!!).

The cam belt did not break though looks as if it has shifted over and sheared somewhat. Does that make any difference? Worst case I'll probably break it - leather seats, alloys etc.
1998 1.9td Broken Tensioner (Won't start) - Peter.N.
Its probaby slipped a tooth or two, if it was still firing up you could have got away with it providing it hasn't moved further. If the engine doesn't turn over at all now, you likely have a different problem, probably electrical, if it does turn over, especially if its faster than usual, you probably have a broken cam shaft.