A colleague walked in to my office this morning, slightly ashen of face.
His car had conked out on the roundabout outside the building (there's the good luck bit of the story so far), after making what he described as "a sound like a hoover", followed by cutting out noisily and stopping dead. The car then seemed to want to turn over, but couldn't.
Astra G, 1.6 petrol, 52 plate, manual.
Mr AA arrives to inspect the vehicle and diagnoses a broken cambelt tensioner, but with an intact cambelt apparently sitting around in the engine bay, but having been thrown off the mechanism.
The car has now been recovered to the owner's driveway to await his local trusted indie in his mobile van.
Is the tensioner breaking likely to have caused any terminal engine damage, or, as the belt itself is still intact, is this gentleman likely to have got away with it, and the car will only require a new tensioner to get it back on the road?
I would be interested to hear opinions as he's already panicing about the car being beyond reasonable economic repair.
Cheers all.
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If it was ticking over at the time, I'd fit a new tensioner and belt and chance it. You'll soon find out if more work's required.
If it was moving in gear, then think of all that inertia of the car bouncing the pistons off the now stationary valves.
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He was moving in gear, albeit slowly around a roundabout.
Eek. He's often glanced admiringly at my Mazda 6, maybe it's time for me to get something a bit more economical? Like a Subaru Legacy or a VW Phaeton. :-)
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8 or 16 valve engine?
If 8v, then he might be lucky, but 16v - no chance.
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Don't know, but I suspect 8v. Although that's only a guess using my spider sense. He's the sort of chap who who doesn't go in for perfomance versions.
Maybe the thread title needs changing to "Didn't get away with it".
He says he always services it himself, but didn't think the cambelt would need doing, as he used to own a Cavalier which he ran to a huge mileage without ever needing one.
Oh dear. A lesson may have been learnt.
Edited by Alanovich on 05/02/2010 at 12:37
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but didn't think the cambelt would need doing, as he used to own a Cavalier which he ran to a huge mileage without ever needing one
That policy has served me perfectly well over the years, current R reg Escort 16v bought on 80k miles and now on 105k with only oil / oil filter changes. Nothing in the (70k-worth of) history to suggest it's been done. (Cue a post tomorrow: "Escort - cambelt snapped"...)
Edited by Dave_TD {P} on 05/02/2010 at 19:45
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It was the tensioner which failed on my Fiesta as I was waiting to enter a roundabout.
Until you investigate you don't know what damage has occured. Mine was far from OK.
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As DD, if it's 16v, then, no chance. If it's an 8v, then it may have done no damagae, or may have only broke some rockers. Any broken rockers can be replaced without much work.
The timing belts on 8v engines have a long change interval, and the tensioner is a very robust device. So robust as to invite neglect - I would tend to replace it as a matter of course, but, I can imagine many risking it.
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Well, my colleague is here this morning, and somewhat more surprisingly so is the Astra.
His local mobile indie arrived on Friday afternoon and did indeed find that all the valves were bent.
He has stripped the top of the engine and installed new valves (all 16), rebuilt the top of the engine and installed the new cambelt, tensioners and the rest, delivering the car back to my colleague on Sunday morning.
All for £600.
My colleague feels that the's done a great job as the car feels much smoother and quieter than before. He is well pleased. Sounds like a quality job, done at a good price, in very short order over a weekend. The invoice stated 8 hours labour plus parts.
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Make sure to tell your colleague to keep a regular eye on the oil level. Have seen reports before on a Vx forum where the oil consumption has suddenly increased following a top end rebuild. No explanation why.
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...All for £600...My colleague feels that he's done a great job...
Agreed, and nice to hear of a sensible motorist who's prepared to pay a fair price provided the job's done right.
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Same price as a colleague's daughter has just paid for a similar job on a Scenic. The belt went due to water pump failure.
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I agree that is a very reasonable price considering the sheer amount of work involved.
When I had my Scenic, I read with horror that many belt failures on these engines are caused by the auxiliary belt failing, being flung through the flimsy timing belt cover, and taking out the cam belt too.
I'm currently driving a Golf which is 3k overdue a cambelt, and keeping fingers crossed until my mate can fit it in this weekend. Low revs only @ the moment.
One cambelt failure in my motoring history on a 1600 Sierra (Pinto). Happened at tickover. New belt and tensioner, turned the key with everything crossed, and she fired up sweet as anything (well, as sweet as a Pinto got). I've always been over-cautious with cambelts ever since.
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On early Golfs a broken fan belt would often take the cam belt as well.
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>>One cambelt failure in my motoring history on a 1600 Sierra (Pinto). Happened at tickover.
My experience also, except it was a 1600 GT MK3 Cortina.
I wonder if there's a (fortunate) reason they fail at low revs?
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Strictly speaking,the Pinto was only the 2.3 OHC manufactured in the USA. tho' most people refer to all Ford OHC of that era as Pinto.The correct name was T88.The 2.0 was a non-interference engine-belt could break and engine was not damaged.The 1.6 and 1.8 could get away with no damage if belt broke at slow speed but the 1.3 OHC(not sold in UK)always damaged its' valves.
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The belt of my 2000 Cortina also went at tickover - in the paddock at Donington while I was using jump leads to charge another battery. Came back to the car and assumed it had just stalled. Took a while to twig what had happened.
A friend told me I would be alright on a 2 litre engine. However a while later when I took the head off I noticed the pistons came to the top of the block, and the valves were a couple of millimetres proud of the head. Had to think for a while until I realised the head gasket was just thicker than the valve protrusion!
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