Broken Timing Chain

837843

29/4 22 - How do you arrive at the condition 'Broken Timing Chain' ? Thought Timing Chains avoided this very same condition when a Timming Belt is used ? Don't Chains expand & Belts snap ? Was something else amiss prior to failure ? Neglected maintainence ?

Caz3121

did you mean to open a new thread or is this post meant to be on an existing thread?

Ebe_Scrooge

Struggling to make sense of your post, but in a nutshell ... timing chains last a lot longer than belts, but they do eventually go.  They can go prematurely if they were fitted incorrectly (too tight or too slack), though this should be unlikely if they were fitted by a competent mechanic.  A more common cause is using the incorrect grade of oil, allowing the oil level to run low, or not changing the oil at the specified intervals.

motorguy

Ebe_Scrooge said:

Struggling to make sense of your post, but in a nutshell ... timing chains last a lot longer than belts, but they do eventually go.  They can go prematurely if they were fitted incorrectly (too tight or too slack), though this should be unlikely if they were fitted by a competent mechanic.  A more common cause is using the incorrect grade of oil, allowing the oil level to run low, or not changing the oil at the specified intervals.

^^^^
This

Another cause of premature wear / failure is the stop start mechanisms particularly in diesels.  Causes extra stress on the chain.

ratrace

Also plastic chain guides dont help and mainly the culprit for the chain jumping a few teeth casuing major damage resulting in many cars being scrapped way too early seen lots of the years in the trade

we had a new astra k with a noisy chain a while ago lucky for the owner he had it replaced as soon as the noise started but it was a pig of a job due to vauxhalls genius idea of having the chain on the gear box side which made it a £1500 job instead of about £500 if it was on the other side

maxmycardagain

belt 100k 
chains 200k

go beyond and risk the engine

(belts also have an age limit, VW state 5 years)

Car_54

ratrace said:

Also plastic chain guides dont help and mainly the culprit for the chain jumping a few teeth casuing major damage resulting in many cars being scrapped way too early seen lots of the years in the trade

we had a new astra k with a noisy chain a while ago lucky for the owner he had it replaced as soon as the noise started but it was a pig of a job due to vauxhalls genius idea of having the chain on the gear box side which made it a £1500 job instead of about £500 if it was on the other side

I doubt whether that was Vauxhall’s idea. Rather adopting a design from most other markets where they drive on the right.

motorguy

maxmycardagain said:

belt 100k 
chains 200k

go beyond and risk the engine

(belts also have an age limit, VW state 5 years)

Belts can be required to be changed at a lot lower miles than that.  I've seen some as low as 60K miles / 5 years or 72K miles / 6 years (which every comes first miles / year).  There will be an interval set by the manufacturer.

Chains - lots of premature wear happening on those, particularly with some of the BMW engines (desperately long service intervals, lack of top ups by some owners being the main causes).  Some may not make it past 80K miles before the start to be audible / risk breaking.

forgotmyname

Fiat 500 / Ford KA etc..   Belt change at  35k to 42k miles or 3 to 4 years  depending on the year built.