Thanks,

In my opinion the car was not "as described", however I fear it might be hard to enforce this.

You're going back two owners, the ones you bought the car from will simply state they bought the car in good faith from someone who had the belt changed, chances of a result nil IMHO but i'm as far from a legal expert as you can get.

Its entirely possible the belt was changed, the belt might have been perfectly fine and its an idler or water pump or other item that has failed, stripping or snapping the belt, which may or may not have been replaced when the belt was, cheap kit cheap or fewer parts?

Cambelt is the gamble you take, no receipt that looks genuine you must assume it hasn't been done, timing chains are no longer the guarantee of trouble free as once they were with extended service intervals thrown into the mix and cheap/poor chains and tensioning designs.

It doesn't help that belt routes and designs are cheap and nasty in most cases, the belt doing far too much work and too arduous a route, a belt has no place driving a water pump, the cambelt should do only one thing, drive the camshafts and be heavy enough to cope with that, its frankly amazing how well they do and how long they last in many cases...the other biggie is what a palaver a belt change is, its a service item yet a massive operation in all but a very few good (read good and engineeringly expensive) designs, but its not in most makers interests to make it easier to replace as in almost all cases the car will be out of makers warranty and long past its typical new car buyer timescale to worry about.

Your choice is between getting the existing engine rebuilt or finding a good used unit and getting it fitted, complete with a new full cambelt kit.

Edited by gordonbennet on 01/02/2016 at 09:47

Indeed JohnF, talk about the belt going round the mulberry bush, amazing it lasts the year out.

This is how a belt should drive the cams, and only the cams, world without end, Amen. en.allexperts.com/q/Toyota-Repair-832/2012/2/1999-...m

Note the timeline, good 90's design again.

Edited by gordonbennet on 01/02/2016 at 16:18

our 2000 1.6 Focus is even better - just the one (tension) pulley and see how robust the belt is

Thats a good simple robust design, all cars should be like that, 90's design again, i know i keep saying it but car's peaked then, too many that came after have been made far too complicated and the cynic in me believes it to be deliberately getting away from examples like that.

Your dicing with injury workshop practices make great reading, mind you they should come with a govt health warning...:-)

Edited by Mike268 on 01/02/2016 at 11:22

As gordonbennett has said, they may-well have have had the garage change the timing belt, but not the tensioner, pulleys, water pump, etc. All of these, if applicable on that particular engine, need to be changed, too.

Just changing the cambelt only is asking for trouble in the future, but, of course, works out considerably cheaper to do.

Private sale? You've on your own, I'm very sorry to say, OP. Had you purchased from a dealer then it would have been a completely different story.

Edit. When the engine is dismantled for inspection you will be able to tell whether the cambelt was changed 10,000 miles ago, or not, because you will still be able to read the manufacturers printing on it.

Edited by Galaxy on 01/02/2016 at 13:24

I serviced its ribbed v belt not so long ago which drives the other things. Bend toothbrush to rt angle over candle, dip in paraffin and carefully hold against idling belt to clean any debris from the V channels. Finish off with water and spot of detergent, allow to dry, then squirt belt dressing at it. This also should last the life of the car. (addendum for careless mechanics - collect amputated fingers and hurry to A & E)

As I said on the other thread where you posted this nonsense that is total stupidity. Using any oil based product will contaminate the belt causing it to degrade. The belt dressing you posted details of a while ago is not designed for automotive belt purposes.

Keep your downright stupid and dangerous practices off decent web forums.