When did your timing belt break?

[Folkranger]

Just about to get mine changed as five years have passed and it's like being on borrowed time. I missed it's five year anniversary because it gets serviced on 2, 4, 6..... years.

Just wondering if anybody's had a failure in under five years.

Would also like to hear from anyone who's had a failure after five years (just being inclusive )

 

[gpat]

Apparently only 1% of timing belts fail within 10 years or 100,000miles of use.

Knowing my luck I would be in the 1%

 

[VXman]

My Renault Megane (RS Cup version) is coming up for 7 years. I'll let you know!! I must get around to it. It's escaped me as I had the car in storage for 3 years while I was working abroad. It's very expensive to do and annoys me that I've hardly used the car since it was done. Same goes for my VX220 but it's in dust sheets in the garage at the moment so won't be going anywhere.

 

[mackeellan]

Great question. I shall follow with interest. I had my cambelt replaced on my vw passat and within weeks the bolt holding the idler pulley snapped, total engine ruin. The bolt was the original.

 

[denisejoe]

Not belt but bolts holding tensioner less than one year luckily garage accepted responsibility

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[Langtoftlad]

Citroen/Peugeot have informed me my timing belt change schedule is ten years...

 

[ivorantony]

Great question. I shall follow with interest. I had my cambelt replaced on my vw passat and within weeks the bolt holding the idler pulley snapped, total engine ruin. The bolt was the original.

Usually with a quality cambelt kit you get new bolts and sometimes a revised torque setting,
very few setup allow re use of old bolts,

 

[LesW]

My (kit) car is powered by a 2.0litre Ford Pinto engine, I took it to Portugal via Eurotunnel last year and gave it a thorough going over before leaving, including changing the cambelt.

It wasn't until I updated my service log that I realised it was over twenty years and 55,000 miles old..

Many (many) years ago a friends Capri, same engine type, suffered a broken cambelt, the damage was quite severe..

 

[Folkranger]

Great question. I shall follow with interest. I had my cambelt replaced on my vw passat and within weeks the bolt holding the idler pulley snapped, total engine ruin. The bolt was the original.

Hence the sayings "Leave Well alone" and "If it ain't broke don't fix it"

I stopped getting habitation checks when I found more things went wrong as a result.

 

[Folkranger]

My (kit) car is powered by a 2.0litre Ford Pinto engine, I took it to Portugal via Eurotunnel last year and gave it a thorough going over before leaving, including changing the cambelt.

It wasn't until I updated my service log that I realised it was over twenty years and 55,000 miles old..

Many (many) years ago a friends Capri, same engine type, suffered a broken cambelt, the damage was quite severe..

I suppose it depends whether yours is an interference engine as to whether it matters.

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[ivorantony]

My (kit) car is powered by a 2.0litre Ford Pinto engine, I took it to Portugal via Eurotunnel last year and gave it a thorough going over before leaving, including changing the cambelt.

It wasn't until I updated my service log that I realised it was over twenty years and 55,000 miles old..

Many (many) years ago a friends Capri, same engine type, suffered a broken cambelt, the damage was quite severe..

Luckily for you the 2 litre Pinto is a safe engine so no problem if they break,
I used to replace them at the road side in twenty minutes, so a simple job,

 

[ivorantony]

The 1600cc pinto wasn’t a safe engine if at high revs when the belt broke, but again replaced many and most got away with it,

 

[BouncyBoatFolk]

My VW T2 let go at just about 100k miles. It was 7 weeks old to us,but 6 years old. The rebuild completely wiped out our savings at the time. The job was on the list of the first things that need doing, such is, my life. Firmly in the , "there's no bottom IN my glass" mind set.
Mike.

 

[LesW]

I suppose it depends whether yours is an interference engine as to whether it matters.

My 2ltr is non interference, my friend's 1600 was (interference)..

 

[Albacore]

Citroen/Peugeot have informed me my timing belt change schedule is ten years...

mine too on a 2022 Boxer

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[busbuddy]

Interestingly the partners ford ka diesel (so the fiat/GM engine) has sacrificial rockers, even though it's a timing chain, so if the chain goes it just breaks the rockets.....allegedly

 

[ivorantony]

Same as my old Land Rover discovery 2.5 tdi, bent pushrods and broken rockers but valves and piston’s usually ok,

 

[RowleyBirkinQC]

Citroen/Peugeot have informed me my timing belt change schedule is ten years...

I wonder why they are confident with a 10 year lifespan in comparison with Fiat at 5 years? Are there differences in belt materials?

 

[nicholsong]

My 2ltr is non interference, my friend's 1600 was (interference)..

I just looked up the difference. I learnt something new. Thanks.

 

[ianrm]

My Renault Megane (RS Cup version) is coming up for 7 years. I'll let you know!! I must get around to it. It's escaped me as I had the car in storage for 3 years while I was working abroad. It's very expensive to do and annoys me that I've hardly used the car since it was done. Same goes for my VX220 but it's in dust sheets in the garage at the moment so won't be going anywhere.

Not doing the National?

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[TheBig1]

Well I have known 20 year old vehicles on the original cambelt and others had them fail at just out of warranty of 3 years. Then you read of people that changed their belt and the engine self destructed within weeks. There was one of the members here that had that happen in France last year. It cost thousands to fit a reconditioned engine and trapped them in France for weeks waiting for the parts

 

[PP Bear]

Many millions of pounds are spent on the paranoia of cam belts. I change my own on all my vehicles and the ones I remove look as solid as the one going on, but as Clint said, do you feel lucky.

 

[Folkranger]

Many millions of pounds are spent on the paranoia of cam belts. I change my own on all my vehicles and the ones I remove look as solid as the one going on, but as Clint said, do you feel lucky.

View attachment 730665

Punk

 

[jollyrodger]

Ford 2.5di NA. Smiley:

Few years back now when I was converting vans I sold a van to a nice Dundee couple (Bob and Betty Thomson in the Snowbird 91 group)

So their travels to all the then big Moho shows etc, and then off to the winter sun. Which I believe took in Morocco etc

I met up with Bob, at home a few years later, to replace a solinoid on the overdrive. And at the same time a service and I asked when was the belt last changed?

His reply:When I bought the van from you!!
So a new gates cambelt and over 225,000 miles done in the meantime.
Is it a scotsman being tight?

And yet one of the firms I bought lots of vans from used to service and change belts every 6wks or 6000mls whatever came first

Happy trails

 

[Folkranger]

My old Wolseley 6 (land crab) refused to start at Crystal Palace CC site. AA took it to a garage who kept it for two weeks while we stewed at not being able to return home.
The garage wanted a small fortune and said the engine was seriously damaged.

I eventually forced my way in to the workshop and inspected it myself, and found that only the shear pin had sheared on the timing chain, that's all. I got them to put it back together and got away with a much smaller bill. Turned out they were in cohoots with the AA guy.

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[ontheroadagain]

If you buy a new timing belt is there anyway to tell when it was manufactured?
For all you know it could have been sitting in a box for 6 years and actually be older than the one you are removing!

 

[headlight]

Not my motorhome but a good friend had his serviced at a Fiat Professional including cambelt change last year as the vehicle was 5 years old.
Second time he used the vehicle after the service/cambelt change the tensioner pulley bolt sheared allowing the belt to jump.
The Fiat Professional denied all responsibility and said that Fiat don't supply a new tensioner pulley bolt in the cambelt kit.
Very expensive repair for my friend and several months without the motorhome.

 

[jollyrodger]

Great question. I shall follow with interest. I had my cambelt replaced on my vw passat and within weeks the bolt holding the idler pulley snapped, total engine ruin. The bolt was the original.

That is a common fault as the torque setting for the M. 8 bolt into the alloy head is very low (20nm +90°) and tends to get overtightened resulting in failure of the threads in head.
There is a firm in Birmingham (from memory) that do a fix- a M10 bolt reducing to M. 8 to pick up diameter of the tensioner.
The head can be re-tapped to 10mm in situ. With care

Pardon our interruption...

 

[ivorantony]

If you buy a new timing belt is there anyway to tell when it was manufactured?
For all you know it could have been sitting in a box for 6 years and actually be older than the one you are removing!

No is the answer, But use a quality brand belt like Gates, preferably a complete kit and you won’t go wrong, it’s a combination of stretch/ heat / oil or Antifreeze contamination that creates the problem,
new kit sitting in a dry dark environment will be fine for many years,

 

[PP Bear]

I always use Gates kits