Loose cambelt

ilikedrawing

Hello, we have a 2002 Golf Tdi 110 PD

My boyfriend was on his way to work the other day when our car started making a funny noise, my boyf drove the car about 2 yards after it started making the noise and turned the engine off. After that it wouldnt start. I went to meet him because i have breakdown cover. The AA came and it eventually started. When idleing (we didnt rev it) it made a horrible clattering noise with lots of white smoke. (which could be the pulley and loose cambelt or the valves knackering!) The car was also low on petrol so we put some in.

Today the Golf is in the garage and our mechanic said the bolt has come out of the pulley which made the cambelt loose and miss a couple of teeth. (or something like that, the mechanic mumbles!)

The cambelt hasnt snapped but was loose, what are the chances of engine damage?

TiTheRev

Fairly high the belt only has to slip one tooth for it to cause some damage. Hopefully you've not done that, otherwise it may be expensive :shocked:

This may be part of the problem too?

The car was also low on petrol so we put some in.

It's a TDi? Hopefully just a typo

ilikedrawing

Typo yes! haha We definatley put diesel in it.

Im trying to prepare my boyfriend for the worst news, i like cars, he doesnt and
is thinking he will sell the car and just use his bike (great, no car and rural living)

Thing is my 95 Polo blew its headgasket last week aswell, but i cant afford to fix it so its scrap time, bad luck :rolleyes:

goldspanners

your engine might be be ok, i had one recently do this, the tensioner pully broke and the belt went loose,changed belt and pulley,set up timing and away it went no problem,its still running fine. so you may be lucky.

ilikedrawing

Lets hope so, the mechanic is having a lot of trouble with a bolt so i wont find out until tommorow dinner. The suspense!

Did yours make a horrible clattering sound goldenspanner? (great name btw)

goldspanners

ilikedrawing wrote: »

Lets hope so, the mechanic is having a lot of trouble with a bolt so i wont find out until tommorow dinner. The suspense!

Did yours make a horrible clattering sound goldenspanner? (great name btw)

the engine ran but sounded like like a bag of spanners and struggled to rev up.

fingers crossed.

hewhoisnotintheknow

oops hope its all ok

vaio

I'd guess if it started at all it should be ok once everything is timed correctly

Conor_3

goldspanners wrote: »

the engine ran but sounded like like a bag of spanners and struggled to rev up.

fingers crossed.

It would do because the belt controls the valve and diesel pump timing so everything was opening and closing and being injected at the wrong times.

This failure happens because the cambelt hasn't been changed when it should have been and/or a cambelt kit with new tensioner hasn't been used and just the belt changed.

ilikedrawing

Yeah im not sure at the moment without looking at the paperwork, we bought the car in July and my partner said there is a cambelt change in the service history. The car is on around 88,000 miles. We're going to see if we can find out what was done exactly. I think this might be a new VW weakness.

The bolt in the pulley snapped and is totally stuck in there. They've tried everything but drilling it out so until he's got that bolt out and fit a new cam belt kit we don't know if the engine is damaged.

Conor_3

It's quite possible then that the belt was changed but the garage scrimped on the job and didn't fit a new pulley and tensioner kit as well. Certainly at the garage I use, they won't change a belt without doing the pulley kit as well.
How you'd claim against the garage that did it, I wouldn't even begin to figure out how.

Fingers crossed the bolt comes out.