Hope some kind person can help!
In the recent extremely cold weather, when turning over my 406 I heard a nasty 'rattling' sound. The car did start but from that moment always produced this rattling sound when at lowish revs. The sound came from within engine btw. After a few days of this I left it at local garage to investigate.
They called me next morning to say that timing belt had failed when they had started car and that it was not worth spending £200 to replace as damage to valves was almost certain. (TBH I'm not certain how much faith I have in this garage... they have not been entirely honest in past)
Now just to backtrack a few years: the timing belt had been replaced only 26k miles ago by another garage (who I later realised had got just about everything wrong they ever did!) At the same time they had replaced head gasket and rebored new thread for spark plug that had popped out. I seem to remember them saying that when they first got the car running after their work it had a nasty rattle but they had fixed it. However ever since all that work, the car has driven with a serious 'flat spot'. (Don't know if ANY of that is relevant but I thought the more info the better!!)
Anyway, frankly money is frighteningly tight at the mo and I am wondering how best to proceed...
What really ARE the chances of the valves being damaged as a result of belt failing on car being started?
And I'm wondering if the 'rattle' was likely to be indicative of imminent timing belt trouble?
Other than the loss of oomph since the work by previous garage, this is a lovely, almost 'as new' car and I'd like to save it's not going to cost too much!
Thoughts anyone?!
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Just reading what I posted I realise I rather rambled on...!! The essential question is simply: Should I take a gamble and pay £200 for timing belt replacement or is it the case that the valves are very likely to be damaged thereby making the car beyond economical repair?
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It really depends on the circumstances under which the belt failed, if it was only ticking over you may have got away with no serious damage but if it was being revved it wil undoubtedly damaged some valves. If the latter is the case a secondhand cylinder head might be the cheapest way out but you still have to pay for it to be fitted, unless you can do it yourself.
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Many thanks for the reply.
As my knowledge of cars is limited to where to stick the key to start it up (!) I'm not able to fit cylinder head myself unfortunately. I believe there are breakers who can provide a complete head for £150 ish... and there are some who will fit too...
Excuse my real ignorance here, but is the timing belt part of the cylinder head? If it is, I'm thinking perhaps i should just get a breaker to fit a secondhand head and be done with it. The other option is just to sell car for spares or repair on ebay. Does seem a shame to give up on a car on which everything else is nigh on perfect...
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No, its not part of the head but it does have to be removed to remove and fit the head, so you will need another one anyway. Repairing or scrapping is debatable, if yours was a diesel I would definitly say repair but as a petrol it wont have a lot of secondhand value. It depends on what you are thinking of replacing it with, if its with another '90s car well OK but if you are thinking of getting a modern one bear in mind that the cost of repairing those will probably many time more than the one you have now and the reliability wont be as good. I run mid '90s cars and will continue to do so, they have gone steadily down hill since then and are now really a rich mans toy.
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Given the state of my finances (REALLY counting pennies!) it would be a rusty banger for £400 that I would replace it with... just something with an MOT to keep me going for a few months! OR I could spend £200 on timing belt replacement and then maybe another £250 for s/h cylinder head if necessary (I'm really guessing on price) and know that I've got a great car that will probably last quite a while.
Just thinking of different options.... If i were to get timing belt replaced, I'm wondering whether whoever is fitting it would be able to ascertain the extent of any valve damage WHILE doing the work rather than having to put the whole thing back together. (thinking about minimising labour...). IF there was valve damage, would the car still be driveable to some extent.... enough to get me to breakers to replace head?
Thanks so much for your help. It really is great to get expert advice from someone who doesn't want my money!
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Very difficult to tell without replacing the belt as you cant turn the engine over to do a compression test. its highly likely that there is some damage though. For £400.00 you should be able to pick up a reasonable 405 diesel, or a petrol one even cheaper.
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Just bought a nice Volvo 740 for £300 with MOT and Tax which drives truly beautifully apart from one thing which I will start a new thread about!
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This is really a continuation of a previous thread but I thought I'd start anew to save the reader trawling through all my previous irrelevant rambling!!
The long and the short of it is: The timing belt has recently failed in my 406. I'm aware that this will probably have caused some damage to engine. I'm still weighing up whether to now sell the car 'for spares or repair' or to get it sorted... I'm thinking that perhaps it might not work out too costly to get a used cylinder head fitted if engine does indeed prove to be damaged...
So I've three questions really:
Once the timing belt is replaced, if there IS damage to the engine would the car nevertheless still be driveable for a short distance, albeit perhaps with less power, or is there a possibility that it would not be driveable at all? (I'm just thinking about getting the car to a cheaper mechanic who could fit a replacement head...)
Could a head be fitted by a decent mobile mechanic outside on my drive or does this job require garage facilities?
How many hours labour should it take to replace the head in a 406?
Hope someone can help me make my mind up! Thanks!
{As this post is related to the other thread, then they should be together so people can review earlier discussion for reference purposes}
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 17/01/2010 at 12:09
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I'd eBay it spares or repair. Do a decent ad and you'll probably get a couple of hundred pounds for it. Then buy another 10 year old banger for £500 with full MOT and probably tax too.
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Yes ChicksFan that was my initial thought, but having just bought a banger that has many problems I'm now thinking 'better the devil you know'. Apart from the timing belt and possible engine damage, this Peugeot really is very sound indeed, I've maintained it well for past 5 years and it looks like a new car too. My thought is that if there is engine damage I could just get the whole head replaced. The going rate for a head from a breaker is £120.
If anyone can answer any of the three questions I put in my last post I'd be very grateful. :)
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£24,441was £33,000Details
