Cam belt worth repairing or not?

JMW77

A Bolt broke off the pulley on the cam belt of my vehicle consequently the vehicle has suffered the same damage as though the cam belt had snapped.

Everyone says the engine is now not worth repairing so do i repair or not?

Any advice do i scrap, repair or find a replacement engine ?

Vehicle cost me 3,000 a year ago its a minibus.

blue_haddock

what minibus is it?

It may well be cheaper to buy a decent 2nd hand engine than repair your own.

victor2

Worth looking for a replacement engine and someone who can fit it - if the rest of the vehicle is worth keeping.

optimus_primera

Only you can decide whether its 'worth' fixing or not.
Weigh up the cost of getting it repaired,against selling as a non runner and getting another vehicle.

What is it, transit,vw etc etc ??

goldspanners

you should be able to pick up a second hand or reconditioned engine for your bus. it might be cheaper than trying to fix it.

on the other hand if its the older "smiley" transit then you could well be cheaper fixing it as its not to big a job to replace the belt and sometimes doesn't cause any further damage to these engines if your lucky.

JMW77

Ok its a Renault Master 1999,the garage think they can fix it but can't tell me how much,so
i think it might be better to get a replacement engine than let them try and fix it and potentially cost me more
than a another engine.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

firstly get the engine code of your vehicle, serch for that engine via the engine code f9q f9k are the typical code. then wieght up the costs of the engine+ delivery and fitting. there no telling howw much damage is in the excisting one, yeh bent valves etc but more can happen like cracked head, damaged pistons etc you could be looking close to what you paid for the bus in the first place if rebuilding excisting engine. take the damaged one out and weigh it in at a metal merchants 20 40 quid will help for delivery costs of the second hand one if you source one. a new complete engine on ebay is around 1599. but second hand anywhere from 250-900 depending on engine code. vauxhaul vivaro have the same engines!! and codes.

Rolandtheroadie

When my chrysler belt went, the guy I got to fix it had a book with info on cam belts. Might have been as simple as saying whether the engine was normally badly damaged or normally ok, I'd imagine a lot of garages have these books.
Most help came from a good internet forum for the brand. This told me the usual damage and was spot on.

lamplighter2

if cam belt bolts have broke then anything may have happened as in previous posts is the bodywork good or is the tin worm marching fast you may be better off cutting your costs if you have the latter and look for something the same with less miles if bodywork is sound then look for a recon engine, trouble with a engine from a scrap motor is it any good at least with a recon or gold seal it has a warrenty so if it does go bang you have some redress , or trust your luck and look for one thats been in a crash and the engine has a low miles on it eg under 80k if above then it will need the cam belt changing to be on the safe side plus if the waterpump is part of the setup that aswell difficult disicion to take on what to do for the best. if the garage that have it say they can fix it and can garentee that it will not seize in the next 10k and its not going to be a lot then get engine fixed.

JMW77

The garage has told me £600 as a ball park figure but could be a lot more ,where do i find the engine code?

atrixblue.-MFR-.

JMW77 wrote: »

The garage has told me £600 as a ball park figure but could be a lot more ,where do i find the engine code?

usually located within the chassis number on the VIN plate or a faster option ring a renault dealer and give them your reg number and they can tell you!