Anyone had a cambelt snap before? ...
 

Got a little polo GTi at the moment, and it cut out on the motorway this morning.

Called out the AA, and the cambelt has snapped :(

It's gone into a garage so they can take the head off and have a look at the damage, but even best case scenario is going to be bent valves etc I'm guessing.

Anyone had this before?

Sounds like pocket money spent for this week ,


Present ones chain driven , *nearly* everthing else has gone wrong tho lol

Happened to me once on my Cavalier Sri. The AA guy came out, looked very glum and popped the cam cover then swore. Lots.

The nicest thing he said was "You lucky, lucky b*stard!"

It turns out the valves and pistons had somehow JUST missed on all four cylinders, and it cost me no more than a new cambelt and cam gasket :D

However my g/f at the time had the cam belt on her dinky little metro 1.1 go and it bounced all four cylinders and every valve.

Unfortunately it is going to cost.... sorry.

yep -- Volvo 360 GLT

cambelt snapped on the Wandsworth underpass circa 1992 -- engine stopped dead

3 bent valves if i remember


just had my Impreza one changed last week (I rode my luck all last year)

Depends on the piston to valve clearances.

Some engines have no issues with snapped belt and you simply throw another one on and off you go, others can suffer significant damage as piston meets valve.

Call to a VW service dept should give you the answer on that one.

It happened to me with a 2 litre Capri years ago. It just cut dead as you would expect and the broken cambelt was some distance back down the road.

I walked back to a Ford garge, bought a new cambelt, walked back to the car and fitted the new belt, luckily it was easy to time the cam. I started the car-no damage, and continued to my destination!

I hear that the 2 litre Ford engine is one of those where the valves will miss the pistons thank goodness. The 1600cc one would not!

Les :)

Yeah, on my 1.4 Fiesta years ago. :(

Bleedin' expensive!

check to see if the polo gti engine is a no interference engine. I think thats the term. Anyway, some engine designs mean that the piston / valves dont meet, so if a cambelt goes, your ok.

My friends carina gti tensioner went, causing the cambelt to jump off and that was ok.

Do a bit of research, which will help when the garage rings, stating thousands of pounds for work not required.

SBK

Astra went a couple of years ago. All 16 valves bent. About £500 with me taking the head off and replacing it etc. Engineering firm skimming the head and replacing all the valves.

Dave

Done a bit of checking and it seems like all the modern VW engines are interference types, so sounds like it's going to be an expensive fix, if it can be fixed at all.

It didn't make a load of noise as it went, but was on the motorway doing 70ish at the time, so bound to have done damage.

Just have to wait for the garage to call and see what they say I guess :(

2 litre pintio? We had the same thing on a p100 pick up at my old job. Think the mechanic said it was ok because it was a high compression engine???

Was the belt due to be changed?

Might be worth looking on the bay to see if there any engines going cheap

If it's an "interference" engine, I think that is the term, then you are probably looking and the bent valves and such like situation, if it's non-interference then this means there is enough clearance between piston and valves so that when the belt snaps you won't have the valves saying an unwanted hello to mr piston.

Got nothing to do with compression - I'd be using a different mechanic next time :thumb:

Yep, twice, first time 14 of 16 valves were bent, second time, 1 valve bent and 1 snapped and embedded into the head :(

Good luck!

I stripped some of the teeth off the cambelt on my old 1.6 Mk2 Cavalier and it just stopped with a clunk. My mate (a mechanic) turned the engine by hand and refitted the belt. That got it running for long enough to drive it to the scrapyard.

I remember a guy who had just bought an 96 n reg red Astra convertible, 1.8 & the belt snapped it bent 8 of the 16 valves. Is it possible for the engine to run although quite damaged without the belt or would it damage the cylinder head too?.

I had one go on my old rover 218, with the peugoet diesel engine.... the belt snapped, the pistons hit the valves, the valves pushed into the head, and snapped the camshaft into three pieces........ i threw the engine away and put another one in it...LOL

Yep x 2
First no interference volvo engine - no sweat
Second 2litre renault, 15 bent valves one snapped and a crack in a piston crown.
Engine replacement!

happened on volvo 340 bent valves.

happened on charade gtti 3 cyl and bent 4 exh valves not only that but cracked the head where the valve stem sits in the head result was leaking water damn!!!!
if it happens on my mx5 no problem its a non inteference engine!!!!!!!

Belt snapped on my wife's old Clio.

Took about 4 valves with it, but we replaced all 8 as a matter of course. It wasn't too expensive IIRC, although the fix had a hint of mates rates, circa £350 I think. Pistons were OK.

Happened to me on my old 306GTi-6. Supposedly safe engine, but I changed down a gear to go round a corner as it went which fubared it.

I'd had it less than 24 hours so the Pug dealer stumped up repairs (luckily as was over 2k :eek: ), but as the car was so new (1.5 years old) there were no parts in the UK as they didn't expect issues like that so soon, ended up off the road for 2.5 weeks while they sourced parts :(

as said before if "interference" engine very good chance of valve / piston damage, although having said that its amazing what you can get away with if you werent at high revs at the time & dip the clutch as soon as it happens...
also there are different levels of "interference" & this can vary from model to model, compression ratio although not directly related is relavent if its a modded engine as skiming the head/cylinders brings the valves closer to pistons thereby increasing chance of damage so to be fair there is a possible connection.......:idea:

had several old "buckets" that werent worth the cost of a belt go on me, 2 old escorts, fiat uno ( yeauch !!! ) capri's & an old cavalier.

if your on a budget replace the belt & see what happens, cant really make things much worse--

if it runs, but badly, ditch it at an auction........

hmmmmm.. warning NEVER buy a second hand car from me !!!!! :cool:

LMAO!! :lol1:

Sounds like everyone's had a cambelt go at some stage or another! I'm still waiting to hear from the garage which has got mine in. I expect they've looked at the damage by now and are just thinking of the highest figure that they can quote me for repairs which I'll agree to :rolleyes: :(

Just had the bad news from the garage. All the valves bent - all the valve guides damaged, and the belt hadnt actually snapped - a tensioner had broken off the side of the engine. Total for repair quoted at £850 :eek:

Managed to get them to agree to do it for £750 - pretty gutted to say the least, especially as this car was only supposed to be a stop-gap, and I've already spent £700+ on it since getting it 6 months ago (new clutch, wheel bearings, tyres etc).

Old cars - never again :(

I had the cambelt snap on my old Integrale 200 miles after the engine was rebuilt :mad: The guy that rebuilt it didn't want to know and I ended up taking the head off & replacing the bent valves myself :mad:

Had one go on my vectra v6 sri on the dual carrigeway engine was fine. Another vectra v6, was waiting at the traffic lights when it snapped engine was a goner:freak3:

has anyone ever had a subaru timing belt go?

mates playing with time.. 2 years overdue.. isnt bothered if it goes either..

ohhh dear musnt love his scooby ive had 2 cambelts go ford fiesta xr2 bent all the valves 700 quid fix and a escort rs turbo full rebuild 1800 quid for that one wasnt laughing

lol thats the thing, he dusnt love it, takes it for granted, bought it, spur of moment 2 years ago dirt cheap, hasnt serviced it or anything, just blasts it once a week :( its criminal.