What has caused a broken intake valve in my car?

I recently had my fuel injectors renewed at a garage. The car ran fine for two months then just cut out on a short motorway journey. I took it back to the garage to be told that an intake valve was broken and this had destroyed the engine. Could this be linked to the work I had done?

Asked on 20 July 2025 by Paul Wilkin

Answered by Alan Ross
You don't say what make, model or year the car is but it's rather unusual for an inlet valve to break as such. The main reason would be that the timing belt has broken which can then result in the pistons hitting the valves. Have you checked with the garage as the reason for the valve to be broken? If we assume that the car has a cambelt and has not been changed for a considerable time then this may be the cause. As for the new injectors and given that the engine had run okay for two months we would not at this stage consider that they were the cause of the problem.
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