Anybody even snapped a timing belt?

[Ottobon]

NOTE:please move to "general automotive"

Just wondering if anybody has ever blown a motor snapping a timing belt, i recently bought a Diesel Jetta for cheap, luckily the body was good because after about 60 miles the engine exploded, it seems completely siezed!

anyways i didn't get a good chance to study what may have happened, but thats why im asking what a snapped timing belt is usually like to experience

The car was basically running great, i had a eye on oil level and engine temperature and it seemed to be all right, but it started banging, then started cutting out, and within a few seconds their was flying engine parts and smoke!

it was a humbling experience, as i've never even had such a massive engine failure, made me thankful that my old MR2 has always been faithful, its broken down, but atleast its never blown up on me, similar truth with my ford tempo (but that car is so crappy i would probably just laugh if it was blew up)

[RUU-CHAMA]

I had a snapped timing belt on my 1997 Dodge Intrepid but the engine just shut down with no damage because it was a non-interference engine, so I guess my experience doesn't help.

[Scott]

I do not recall the older VW diesel spec but basically you have two likely scenarios.

1 - That is an interference motor and you bent several valves by breaking the timing belt. You may also have some minor piston or combustion chamber damage as well.

2 - It is not an interference motor and you simply need to replace the belt, line everything back up at TDC and carry on.

Try putting a wrench on the big nut inside the crank pulley and attempt to turn the motor. It should turn with little to moderate effort (not sure how strong you are). What size diesel is this and is it turbo or N/A?

[Scott]

Ok, I just went and checked, and yours is an interference motor no matter what. You will either need a new head or the parts to rebuild your current one.

Sorry man... if you get it running they are wonderful cars, but it will not be a cheap fix.

[Ottobon]

when i tried to put the clutch back in in first gear at 10mph the front wheels locked up

used motors aren't expensive comparitevely, i do my own work so no huge deal, especially as i bought it mainly as a winter car and its currently May

i just wanted to know if you could seize i engine because of timing belt, or if its more likely that it had oil starvation (oil level were fine, but for all i know it could have gotten clogged at the sump or something 60 miles into the journey)

as i may have said before, it gave me about 10 seconds of anger (first sounded like either 3 cylnders and or a exhaust gasket leak, "put put put put" then got worse) then it blew

[cl191]

I had one snapped on a 95 Ford Escort before, the engine was fine. It was one of the scarier moment in my motoring history, I was in the fast lane in rush hour freeway traffic, the engine just stopped and the power steering cut out...some how I found a "hole" in the traffic and actually made it to an exit without running into anything.

[Devon]

Depends on the engine, but sometimes when the timing belt snaps, it drops the pistons and your engine is pretty much rooted.

[Beni]

those belts don't last forever, maybe it was just old.

[WellsieTRD]

Ive seen plenty of snapped timing belts, most common are landcruiser, hilux and landcruiser prado diesels which demand to be replaced every hunderd thousand kms but don't get done because customers follow the "she'll be right mate" principle, and then complain when we refuse to honor the warranty. Thankfully the new V8 diesels are chain drive

[fbc]

My parents snapped one on their Mk1 Camry - but fortunately the motor is a non-interference design, so it just coasted to a halt.

[Scott]

Originally Posted by Ottobon

when i tried to put the clutch back in in first gear at 10mph the front wheels locked up

used motors aren't expensive comparitevely, i do my own work so no huge deal, especially as i bought it mainly as a winter car and its currently May

i just wanted to know if you could seize i engine because of timing belt, or if its more likely that it had oil starvation (oil level were fine, but for all i know it could have gotten clogged at the sump or something 60 miles into the journey)

as i may have said before, it gave me about 10 seconds of anger (first sounded like either 3 cylnders and or a exhaust gasket leak, "put put put put" then got worse) then it blew

It is possible that something broke when the pistons collided with the valves and it is wedged in the cylinder preventing anything from moving. There are quite a few variables here, but almost all of them involved yanking the head off and having a look around.

Since you do your own work, go secure the appropriate amount of beer and dedicate roughly 3-4 hours to finding gout what went wrong! I would love to see/ hear about it just so that I can add to my own personal knowledge base of crazy VW malfunctions and how to fix them.

[thedguy]

I can only add this ironic little tid bit that happened to my friend...

He was driving home in a 96 Eclipse with a fresh timing belt, just as he hit the off-ramp to his house, the belt snapped. had to get the head rebuilt, and I think he bent 6 valves.

[janstett]

I've had it happen twice. It's not a good feeling.

First time I was working 1200 miles from home in Florida, driving my 1985 Isuzu I-Mark to my condo. I pulled off the highway and as I'm going down the off ramp, all the lights went on and everything siezed. Turns out the timing belt had gone and the result is bent valves and a top end rebuild. I think this was around 50-60k miles.

Second time, I had just bought my 944 Turbo and literally on the same day I picked it up from the Porsche mechanic after an overhaul the belt went. I knew the belts were a problem on these cars (had to be changed every 30k miles), so I had the belt inspected once at Porsche of Lawrenceville and AGAIN at my Porsche mechanic/tuner while I had the car in for an overhaul of neglected items from the PO (motor mounts, bushings, shocks, et al). Both inspections cleared the belt, and the Porsche card reflecting the belt change was still in the glove compartment and was nowhere near the danger point. So, like I said, that morning I picked up the car, drove to work, and then 1 mile into my trip back home the belt went. I was not a happy camper. I was shocked and disappointed that Porsche would use (1) a rubber timing belt and (2) an interference engine design. I went through a top end rebuild (which to be honest on a 20 year old car isn't the worst thing in the world that could have happened). The moral on the 924/944/968 is to change the belt as soon as you take ownership regardless of when it was last changed, because you don't know how long the car sat idle. Also to be fair, I think in this case it was a freak failure that the Porsche tuner had never seen, the belt hadn't failed but I think a bearing on the auto-tensioner failed and the belt jumped the tensioner. They said they had never seen that failure and they specialize in older P-cars.

It's expensive and time consuming to go through a top end rebuild, cost me around $1-2k in 1992 on the Isuzu and it cost me something like $3500 on the p-car in 2003 (with some other repairs but the rebuild was the bulk, but also offset because the tuner had some sympathy on me and gave me a price break).

For what it's worth, the DSM cars (Mitsubishi Eclipse, et al) are also notorious for belt failures.

[otispunkmeyer]

my mate in his 1.0l micra collete with 4 gears snapped his timing belt in the fast lane of the M1. yeah 4 gears and going fast enough to be in the outside lane meant he was pretty much on the limiter.

cam belt went and took all his internals with it lol. no biggie though an engine for one of those was dirt cheap.

engine was hosed though.

[Deviate]

Maybe this is a serious issue with the VW TDI belts. My cousin snapped his timing belt less than 5k miles after changing it with another OEM VW belt.

[martineb72]

A co-worker had his timing belt severely slip because it got wet from a deep puddle just 2 days ago, that caused his engine to be ruined on his Honda Civic. Didn't even break the belt.

He thinks his insurance might pay for the new engine and rental car fee.