Can anyone give me any advise on the best course of action?
I have a 1.8 Mondeo TD (which I have only had for 3 weeks), and this morning I got in as normal to go to work when the cam belt snapped. I moved a grand total of about 3 inches! A friend of mine had a look with me and rightly diagnosed a snapped cam belt.
Now, I am aware of the perils of snapped cam belts and what can happen to your valves etc, but I am not sure what to do. Should I get the belt replaced and HOPE the valves are OK or would this be a complete waste of time? The friend said that I MAY be lucky as the car was not travelling and there was no clattering noise that he would usually associate with valve damage (the snap of the belt was all I heard).
I am willing to get the belt replaced if there is a reasonable chance that it will be OK but I can't afford to keep throwing money at it if the chances are slim.
Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.
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I know some engines have a full lift valve clearance that means it'll never hit a piston... It happened to me a few years back with a golf. I just changed the cambelt and tried it... and it ran... I did a compression test and it all looked OK... did another 20k in it no probs... Unless you can get an endoscope into the bores through the plug holes you might as well change the belt and hand crank the engine plugless slowly at first to make sure the valvetrain is turning smoothly...
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I'll wager £100 that it will be damaged internally.
Never had a Ford 1.8 not suffer any damage. I expect the camshaft will be snapped or cracked. There is no 'clearance' at all on a diesel.
Sorry to be a pessimist.
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Really sorry to hear your bad news. Happened to me in an old 1.8 orion and I have to say that the engine was mangled good and proper. I got it all mended - cost about £800 at the time which seems cheap compared with what some have paid - and the car was fine for about 60K after that and then I sold it. Its annoying though that there is this belt in there which I had serviced and changed at manufacturer recommended intervals and which snapped one day for no apparent reason and I was left to foot the bill. I think cambelts are a big con - I buy chain cam cars these days.
Splodgeface
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As DL says, this is a Diesel. Due to much higher compression ratio there is very little clearance and no chance that piston will not have hit valves. Severe damage is likely.
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Look on the bright side, you've only got 8 valves, not 16.
I suspect you're looking at a head rebuild here. If you're very unlucky you may have holed a piston.
Reminds me, that renault trafic really needs that cambelt changing!
Hugo
"Forever indebted to experience of others"
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What you could do is , set the pistons to half travel, i.e. not to TDC then try turning the camshaft over using the central bolt clockwise, if there's more than valve spring resistance i.e. it's excessively ( or impossible ) to move in any position then sorry it's head off, if it turns through a complete cycle you may be lucky - however it's highly unlikely and even if it does turn not a foolproof diagnosis , don't forget to reset the tdc position afterwards !!
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Hi,
It seems the point has been missed here- you've only had it 3 weeks. Was it purchased from a garage?? If it was, then you need to zip round there pronto and get them to fix it. If it was a private sale, you still may have redress depending on how it was advertised.
Let us know how it was purchased.
--
These are the views of Robin the Technician with 35 years in the trade. I fix, therefore I am...
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Thanks for all the responses. I have been asking around and one thing seem to clear and that is that few people can agree on the best course of action. One person I spoke to said that the valves and the cam shaft would be shattered without a doubt. And another said I would probably get away with it.
A friends brother used to be a mondeo specialist with ford (development and troubleshooter or something like that). He told me that (as someone has already mention) diesels have a much higher compression rate than petrols which in turn makes any damage more likely because the tolerances need to be smaller.
HOWEVER he said the one saving grace I might have is the fact that the turbo diesel has a compression rate that is not as high as standard diesels. I was told for mondeos it was 10:1 for petrol 20:1 for diesel and 14:1 for turbo diesels.
Although there may be hidden damage, I have taken then rocker cover off and had as good a look as I can and there is no VISIBLE damage, breaks of scars.
Does anyone want to give me odds?
As for the "who did I buy it off question" ... I made the mistake of telling a friend that I was thinking of getting a new car, and 3 days later there it was. In all fairness he is doing all he can to help but he's already out of pocket and I feel I'm due to follow in style.
Suffice to say that I have learned several valuable lessons in the last 24 hours!
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You do not mention how old the car is or if it has a full service history. My first port of call would be the nearest Ford garage and see what they would offer in the way of good will payments / warranty claims etc.
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bf,
The info you're getting is confusing...yes that happens.
OK trust me I deal with these. It is *most* likely you have caused damage. So far I have never known one of these engines escape without it. As well as bent valves it includes damaged cams, tappets and their housing in the head.
The least damage I've ever known was about four valves to replace and the head could be re-used, still an expensive job. Most smash some part of the head beyond repair and a complete replacement is needed. This will take the job to £1000 or so.
Beware folks who don't know what they are looking at and just replace the bent valves when there is actually head damage that they miss.
Those compression ratio figures are wrong, the diesel and turbo-diesel are far closer than that, both around 20:1. The non-turbo is just as likely to suffer damage.
If by an amazing chance you just had a new belt fitted and it actually ran there is a good chance some hidden damage would surface sooner or later.
M.M
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Sorry meant to say *either* the turbo or non-turbo are just as likely to suffer serious damage.
M.M
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I agree with you David on the CR's, noticed it myself but didn't want to go splitting hairs!
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