Inspecting timing belts in Testarossa

Greetings, just my two cents. If your timing belts give way would the engine damage be covered under insurance. Insurance would not pay for the piece that failed but they would cover what was a result of the failure. Anyone have any input on this. I could be way off on this so I am curious.

R

 

First hand experience - they will not replace a leaky fuel hose, but they will pay for the resultant fire damage.

If you last replaced the belt per the factory interval - it logically seems that they would cover it. Good question - hopefully somebody has first hand experience on this one...

Rgds,
Vince

 

This could get very interesting. I can't see how the insurance would not cover it if you did in fact do the maintenance as per manufacturer recommendations. Hopefully a few more of our Fchat members can chime in on this. I think it would have to be covered. Maybe they would depreciate the engine if replacing with new. Used parts they would not be able to depreciate or apply some sort of betterment. Lets wait and see who else chimes in.

R

 

This just happened to me, so I'll check with my insurance.

But, the insurance could blame the workshop, the workshop could blame it on parts, one part manufacturer could blame another part manufacturer.
What if the shop uses genuine Ferrari parts and they fail? For example, Ferrari timing belts, which is what I have on my car.

 

So, the car insurance won't cover it unless an accident led to the failure, for example if debris or an animal damaged a belt, pulley, or ancillary part.
The shop and parts manufacturers could be liable depending on mileage and time since the belt change.

 

My 88 TR had been driven < 1,000 miles in the 10 years before I bought it. I drove it for ~ 500 miles before I did the engine out. As many mentioned, you can't see the belt's rubber degradation, but the idler-pulley bearing was so wasted that it fell apart in my hand. Problem was corrosion.

I was living on borrowed time and just got lucky.

Pull that engine.

 

This one never had a belt change

 

I sure hope the engine was at TDC and the cams locked when that guy tore the belt.

 

John K,
Good point.

Looks like his idler pully was also rusty (can't judge the bearing, but the outer portion has some rust)