Cambelt's Gone - Garage Repair Dilemma

lesalanos

It's either repair or fit a reconditioned engine

Biggus_Dickus

daveyjp said:

angrycrow said:

The problem with modern engines is that if the cambelt fails the valves hit the pistons, even at low speed. 

Best case four bent valves and a new head gasket. But if you are really unlucky a valve can snap and smash the piston or score the bore in which case it's new engine time. 

Until they take the head off there is no way of knowing the full extent of damage.

Depends how you define 'modern', as has been the case since cambelts were fitted to non interference engines, which was in the 1960s.

Its 25 years since I had my only belt failure and it cost £1,000 to fix.  The damage was limited to bent valves as it happened at tickover speed whilst stationary at a roundabout.

That echoes my only experience of timing belt failure;...about 25 years ago stopping at traffic lights on Trafford Road in Manchester in a Vauxhall Cavalier Sri. Just as I stopped slowly at the traffic lights the engine gently cut-out,...no clattering or clunking from the engine whatsoever. The car only had about 38k miles and was 2 years old!

It then spent about 2 weeks in the local approved repair centre but was never right after that. Repeated attempts to affect a proper repair over the next 3 or 4 months also failed. It was a company car and the lease company eventually conceded defeat and took it back;...no doubt run through an auction house and bought by some poor unsuspecting soul.

Timing belts failures can be anything from relatively minor to catastrophic,...it’s just the way the cookie crumbles unfortunately.

Good luck OP. It’s a sod of a thing to happen.

 

Biggus_Dickus

Sizzlingsmith said:

Hello All
The car concerned is my wife's 6 year old Citroen DS3. 64,000 miles We have been informed by the mechanic at a local garage that the cambelt has gone and there may be other considerable damage done. He has no idea of costs but mentioned it could cost 1,000's to put it right as parts would have to be sent off to access the damage. He said it will be a big job and we would be looking at 4 weeks before we got the car back fixed. My issue is when the cambelt went , the car had only just moved off a few feet and was doing no more than walking pace when it happened. No loud noises or anything heard out of the ordinary. it was as if the car stalled, on turning the igition key it made a whirring sound. My dilemma is if I give the go ahead to have the car fixed, The garage could say it was a much bigger job than it is and charged me a few thousand pounds. Or I could have taken to another garage, again further recovery costs to have it collected and taken to another garage. We just have no idea of costs on this type of repair. 
Any advice would be most welcome guys, thank you for taking the time to read this.

Sizzlingsmith

If this Autoexpress article is accurate, the belt need only be changed every 10 years or 112k miles.

Your experience makes a mockery of that!

 

Silvertabby

Biggus_Dickus said:

Sizzlingsmith said:

Hello All
The car concerned is my wife's 6 year old Citroen DS3. 64,000 miles We have been informed by the mechanic at a local garage that the cambelt has gone and there may be other considerable damage done. He has no idea of costs but mentioned it could cost 1,000's to put it right as parts would have to be sent off to access the damage. He said it will be a big job and we would be looking at 4 weeks before we got the car back fixed. My issue is when the cambelt went , the car had only just moved off a few feet and was doing no more than walking pace when it happened. No loud noises or anything heard out of the ordinary. it was as if the car stalled, on turning the igition key it made a whirring sound. My dilemma is if I give the go ahead to have the car fixed, The garage could say it was a much bigger job than it is and charged me a few thousand pounds. Or I could have taken to another garage, again further recovery costs to have it collected and taken to another garage. We just have no idea of costs on this type of repair. 
Any advice would be most welcome guys, thank you for taking the time to read this.

Sizzlingsmith

If this Autoexpress article is accurate, the belt need only be changed every 10 years or 112k miles.

Your experience makes a mockery of that!

 

Our VW servicing schedule says 5 years or 60K miles, whichever is the sooner.  I would have thought that cambelts are all made of the same material - so why such a big difference between VW and Citroen? 

Ganga

Silvertabby said:

Biggus_Dickus said:

Sizzlingsmith said:

Hello All
The car concerned is my wife's 6 year old Citroen DS3. 64,000 miles We have been informed by the mechanic at a local garage that the cambelt has gone and there may be other considerable damage done. He has no idea of costs but mentioned it could cost 1,000's to put it right as parts would have to be sent off to access the damage. He said it will be a big job and we would be looking at 4 weeks before we got the car back fixed. My issue is when the cambelt went , the car had only just moved off a few feet and was doing no more than walking pace when it happened. No loud noises or anything heard out of the ordinary. it was as if the car stalled, on turning the igition key it made a whirring sound. My dilemma is if I give the go ahead to have the car fixed, The garage could say it was a much bigger job than it is and charged me a few thousand pounds. Or I could have taken to another garage, again further recovery costs to have it collected and taken to another garage. We just have no idea of costs on this type of repair. 
Any advice would be most welcome guys, thank you for taking the time to read this.

Sizzlingsmith

If this Autoexpress article is accurate, the belt need only be changed every 10 years or 112k miles.

Your experience makes a mockery of that!

 

Our VW servicing schedule says 5 years or 60K miles, whichever is the sooner.  I would have thought that cambelts are all made of the same material - so why such a big difference between VW and Citroen? 

Whilst MOST are made of rubber with a steel inner belt similar to tyre construction some are made of different material ,i suppose like all things in life you normally get what you pay for ,that is high quality belts cost more to manufacture plus there is always work to be had by garages fitting belts .

Typhoon1

Why don't you ask them (or another garage) to fit a new cambelt and see what happens?

oldagetraveller1

peter12345678910 said:

I would also consider cause not just effect, have you been changing the oil and filter every year? If you have then it can happen again, especially if it is low miles, but cambelts need to be changed after 80,000 miles but this number will vary with different cars. 

I only buy cars which use chains. 

How would that affect a cambelt?

An engine with a timing chain, yes where regular oil and filter changes will prolong the life of said chain.

Ganga

oldagetraveller1 said:

peter12345678910 said:

I would also consider cause not just effect, have you been changing the oil and filter every year? If you have then it can happen again, especially if it is low miles, but cambelts need to be changed after 80,000 miles but this number will vary with different cars. 

I only buy cars which use chains. 

How would that affect a cambelt?

An engine with a timing chain, yes where regular oil and filter changes will prolong the life of said chain.

I agree with that ,also if a manufacturer states a belt should last x miles you presume they run that engine for at least that plus a healthy % to arrive at that figure.

nick74

It would be helpful to know what exact engine the OP's car has? ISTR that some PSA HDi engines for example were designed so that if the cambelt broke then basically all of the rocker arms would snap off, but often there would be no other engine damage.

angrycrow

oldagetraveller1 said:

peter12345678910 said:

I would also consider cause not just effect, have you been changing the oil and filter every year? If you have then it can happen again, especially if it is low miles, but cambelts need to be changed after 80,000 miles but this number will vary with different cars. 

I only buy cars which use chains. 

How would that affect a cambelt?

An engine with a timing chain, yes where regular oil and filter changes will prolong the life of said chain.

If its a pure tech 1.2 engine service regime is important as the cambelt on these runs in oil, like the mondeo 1.8 tdci engines. A lack of oil changes could feasibly result in the cambelt deteriorating earlier than the specified change interval.