Timing belt roulette

[Jim Bell]

5.

[Jim Bell]

100.

[Jim Bell]

No valves at all.

[Jim Bell]

Ok, final offer.

 

20.

[cort16]

When I bought my old Audi A4 with 72,000 on the clock but missing service history (arnold clark). I presumed that the belt had been changed but as I started to edge towards 90,000 I got increasingly nervous and finally caved in at 95,000 and had it changed. Guess what? It was the original belt and was hanging on by a ball hair. The guy who changed it said it was the worst he'd even seen that hadn't broke and probably had about 2 miles left it it before it snapped.

The guy I rent my lockup off does regular snapped cambelt fixes. He must do one every couple of months.

[chaseracer]

chain

Oops!

 

<..>

[Pillock]

Cambelt failures can make a nice profit.... People often flog them on for scrap value because a dealer will have quoted £4k to fix. Pick up a rear ended car from salvage, swapsies. Mate used to feed his family doing one or two a month.

[cort16]

He just usually takes the head off, replaces any bent valves then puts a new head gasket and timing belt on them. I think the last one he did was a Megane and it was something like £400 all in to fix it.

[beko1987]

I'm guilty of this! Ran the Puma to 120k without a care about the belt. Turns out it was changed at 60k though so possibly not that bad. ZX was well overdue age wise but never got round to that. XM is probably due it too after 111k, again not got round to it yet. Want to have a try myself though

[alf892]

Definitely money to be made in buying cars/vans where the only fault is belt failure. I have a search on ebay but you never seem to get much where its onlt that.........they always needs 'a bit of paint' or 'air light on' on some such.

 

Best was a 2000 Vectra estate bought for £85 with half a tank of petrol. I was a bit unlucky in that all 16 valves were FKD but was still only just under 250 (inc 2 tyres) to put back on the road. Ran for 6 months and sold for 750.

 

So if anyone gets belt failure on an otherwise good motor...............

[Vince70]

My old A4 is on the original cam-belt and the car is now coming up to 19 years old I'm hoping its a non interference engine but the mileage is 64000 so its not the highest of mileage.

[cms206]

Think the Volvo B230 is non-interference, as is the S-series in the Montego I am informed. The Council Estate will be run until it drops and as over 11k miles it owes me fuck all I may well put a new mill in should it go catastrophically wrong.

[overrun]

B230's definitley are.

 

Easiest belt in evar to change, too.

[oldford]

We put a belt on a customers 100,000 mile 2 litre, 16 valve diesel Passat.  We replaced the belt, tensioner, rollers, water pump and went to the great expense of dishing out £1.50 on the tensioner fixing stud.  It was £1.50 too far as 30 miles later the stud broke.  Luckily VW picked up the £5000 bill for a new engine.

[Hendry]

Worst I think was my mk3 Astra 9 years and 58K miles, think it got scrapped wih still the original belt on, but it was an 8v so I think it would've just been new belt on it, no damage.

 

Going through my cars I think I've erred on the side of caution:

- 206 - got rid at 4.5yr old with 36K miles and original belt

- mk2 Clio - written off on original belt at 3 year old on 33K

- Accent - no idea, done 94K but if it went I couldn't have cared

- Corsa C - it had a 1.4 "twin port " engine with a chain so no worries there

- mk4 Astra - changed it at 7 yr old on 77K but suspect it'd had it changed already at 40K

- mk5 Astra - changed at 6 yr old/ 62K (interval was 6 yr/60k)

- mk3 Clio - seemingly the interval Is 5yr/72K and its only on 37K/4yr old but annoyingly apparently Renaults need an accessory belt kit change at the same interval, never heard of such drivel on any other car but ill do it anyway, never know with these fragile chocolate engines.

[hennabm]

Wifey had a Tipo a while back. Bought at 7yrs old with 27k on the clock. Some 5 years later thought I'd treat it to a TB at the local AC Fiat.

 

Bastard thing broke on the way about 5 miles from the garage :cry:

 

So instead of about £80, it was £500 as the valves went banana

[ShiteRider]

My 1600 cortina was still on its original belt when i got it (since been changed) only had 19k on it, though it was 30 years old.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Think the Volvo B230 is non-interference, as is the S-series in the Montego I am informed. The Council Estate will be run until it drops and as over 11k miles it owes me fuck all I may well put a new mill in should it go catastrophically wrong.

 

1.6 Montego definitely non- interference , snapped one once on the motorway on the way home from buying it from an auction, took about 20 minutes to fit a new one and ran perfect. The same week had one snap on a 1.7 Renault 21, not convinced nothing hit but it ran well enough to sell,took a bit longer to do though.

[oman5]

The volvo 240 is a 2.0 non interference. its on 204k and feck knows when it was last done.

Pug 306 dt is definitely a russian roulette motor. no idea when it was last done, even if its on its second belt its still overdue by about 30k. 

[Micrashed]

The MicraShed has a chain - it rattles like the proverbial skeleton knuckle shuffle.

 

The C8 has a belt and are whilst Citroen claim the change interval is 100K they are notorious for lunching the belts and head at about 40K. So its been done and was tighter than a nuns chuff to work on.

 

I had a 1.5D AX which I never changed the belt on - 125K miles and still going strong when I sold it.

[caver1]

VW Passat 1.9TD (not TDi) .... Bought it at 98k, scrapped at 168k, I think it was on it's original belt, as nothing mentioned in the service history. Engine always ran like a clock (unlike sadly the rest of it)... !

[Bren]

My wife's 51 plate fiesta zetec is still on it's original belt - car has only done 49k but is 12 years old in november.

 

Interval is 10 years /100k.

 

Had a quote of £215 - a bit steep, I bet if I were to sell the car the cost of a belt replacement would be around half the car's value.

[They_all_do_that_sir]

Ive only changed one, on a 1996 Rover 414i I had. I only changed it because it had the usual HGF and while the head was off thought I may as well lob another belt on.

 

HGF again the following week, head skimmed and all was grand for another week before I wrote it off. Happy times.

[forddeliveryboy]

I used to enjoy them in the day when you never had to change them unless they broke and were a twenty minute, £10 job if they did. Hence Audi 80s and old MBs.

[STUNO]

I remember a DIY fix from years ago, suitable for easy to get at belts. Cut the belt in half lengthways, remove outer half. Fit new belt on, remove the inner half of old belt. Correctly position new belt and the job is done! 15 minutes work plus any spannering required to get at the belt.