Cam belt blown - repair / sell advice

cant_think_of_one

Hello,

I've looked around the forum and not seen a post that answers my question and would appreciate some advice.

I've a Ford Fusion 2 (2003) with 65,000 on the clock, tax and MOT until Aug 2014. It was due a cam belt change last week and was booked in but lo and behold - it snapped the day before (whilst idling). This was replaced at a cost of £400 (plus £120 tow to garage).
The garage has informed me that it is running and working however has a suspected bent value so the engine management light is on and car feels like it's throbbing when idle (runs normal with slight revs). It's currently driving fine.
The cost to repair the 'suspect' valve(s) is between £7&900 on top of the £520 I've just laid out (mostly labour to strip the engine).

The value of the vehicle in good condition for this mileage typically ranges from £2,000 to £3,000 (depending on tax/MOT dates).

My query - or advice I'm seeking is - what would you do in this situation?
1) Stump up a further £7-900 for repairs in the knowledge it still may not completely fix it or may find it has caused other damage currently unaware of,
2) attempt to sell privately (being honest with condition) at a loss (say £12-1400 - factoring in cost of repair)
3) attempt p/x trade in at a severe loss,
4) webuyanycar etc (I have queried and they have offered <£800 in perfect working order, repairs subtracted off the quote)
5) any other advice

In the case of 2/3 - I'd add the estimated repair cost to the value it sold at and buy another second hand car.

Many thanks for your time and look forward to your advice.

D

Ebe_Scrooge

A tricky call.

£7 - 900 seems a lot for replacing a couple of valves. Yes, there's a fair bit of labour involved, but not that much. I'm also surprised they weren't replaced whilst doing the cambelt. Might it be worth getting a quote from another garage ?

If the car is otherwise sound, then it's probably worth getting it fixed. How much would it cost you to buy another car of equivalent age / condition etc. ? I'd hazard a guess that overall it makes economic sense to repair yours - 65K miles is not a huge amount for modern cars, there ought to be a lot of life left in it yet.

That's my two-penn'th, for what it's worth

BeenThroughItAll

Seems odd that they didn't check for valve damage before fitting the (already overpriced) £400 cambelt.




Nearly a grand for a valve repair is also far too much.


I'd get a second opinion - the repairing garage could have even fitted the cambelt incorrectly with the same result as their diagnosis. If the EML's on they should have run a diagnostic to identify the fault codes - ask them what they are.

Limey

A quick compression test will tell you if a valve is bent and not seating properly.

Also if it's an exhaust valve that is gone then you will be having some lovely backfires as fuel is pushed into the exhaust during the compression stroke. :-D

londonTiger

it's driving. so drive to a different garage and get another quote.

colino

Don't drive it anywhere, if the valves are bent you might get away with replacing the bent ones and reaming the bores, driving means you will probably shatter the guides and scrap the head.

Nodding_Donkey

I'd sell it just because it was a Fusion but that's a bit of topic so

Don't drive it because you can easily do more damage.

spacey2012

Never know a car with a bent valve fire up.
Think they might be "porkying" you a bit here.

Get the car back and have the EML Read, might be an Airflow or something they have unplugged to pull a fast one and up the bill a bit.

Mankysteve

Third option second hand engine, but it does seem like a lot of money for the head repair.

Quiet_Spark

spacey2012 wrote: »

Never know a car with a bent valve fire up.
Think they might be "porkying" you a bit here.

A Rover 3.5 V8i will run with bent valves no problem (apart from being a bit "lumpy"), and there are no doubt plenty of other engines that will also quite happily start and run (albeit not at 100% efficiency) with bent valves/compression loss on one (or possibly more) cylinders.

EdGasket

But a Rover V8 has twice as many cylinders to help smooth things out!