Timing Belt Opinions 1 September 2022 at 11:22AM in Motoring 7 replies 292 views

darrenw6000

According to Eurocar Parts, their website say a belt should last 60k miles, mine has snapped after just doing 9,750. Do I have a case to go back to who did it and ask them if they can put another belt on?

Grumpy_chap

darrenw6000 said:

According to Eurocar Parts, their website say a belt should last 60k miles, mine has snapped after just doing 9,750. Do I have a case to go back to who did it and ask them if they can put another belt on?

What other damage has been caused?

angrycrow

Belts are changed on mileage and time whichever comes up first. How long ago was the belt changed.

If the timing belt has gone you are likely to have much bigger issues than just the belt being replaced. Unless it is a non interference engine which are increasingly rare, your pistons are likely to have hit and bent the valves. 

I would take it straight back to the garage that fitted the timing belt if it was in the last 12 months. If outside 12 month likely you are stuck with whatever the repair bill is. 

darrenw6000

it is a non interference engine. I don't even know when it snapped so i could have been driving around in it for a time, i only noticed as the battery drained, obviously wasn't being charged by the alternator.

daveyjp

So its an auxilliary belt whuch has failed not a timing belt.  A car won't run without a timing belt.

angrycrow

If the aux belt has gone in a short time I would suspect one of the components driven by the belt is partially seized. Check the tensioners and anything else driven by the belt such as air con or power steering is spinning freely.

Goudy

The timing or cam belt drives the cam shaft/s and usually the water pump as well.
It connects the crank to the cam shaft/s and drives the cam shaft at half the speed on the crank.

If the belt fails the valves won't open when the need to and won't close when they need to either.
This often causes the pistons to hit the valves if it's an inteference engine as the valves and pistons share the same space but at different times of the cycle.

Non interference engines don't have the pistons and valves sharing the same space so don't usually cause major damage when they fail.

It's an expensive job to replace the timing/cam belt, even more if the belt failed and caused damage.
Timing/cam belts often require changing at 60k or 5 years, but it depends on what the manufacturer states in the handbook.


The auxillary belt drives the alternator and more often these days, the air con pump, this is the belt that has failed.
If it's been replaced recently and yet still failed, all the pulley's need checking to see if a seized or rough pulley bearing has caused it.

It should be cheap enough to replace, a quality belt should be around £15- £20.
Access on modern engines can be tight but it shouldn't come to more than a hours labour tops.

lordmountararat

If you're driving around in the car then it definitely isn't the timing belt that's snapped. It sounds like an auxiliary belt, which will be cheap and easy to replace.