TIMING BELT PROBLEM

Unlikely. How old are the belts?

 

Greg, anything is possible first of all how old are the belts? It is also possible that some little things could have fallen in the Tbelt area.
I would question the mechanic and ask lots of question. Although spark plugs and caps are far related from the Tbelts.

 

Ouch! I feel for you. I had the same thing happen on my 308 QV a couple of years ago, just about this time of the year as well. I know the feeling!!!

Good news is there is a tremendous amount of support on F-Chat... lots of know how.

Bad news is its expensive $$$ when this thing happens...

Hope all work out for you!

 

Wow, sorry to hear that.

First time I have seen someone post that they actually had a belt failure in under 5 years.

 

When you've got the belt off, take a look at the break. If a bolt, nut, or other FOD was the culprit, you'll probably see cut marks matching the object.

I'd be ticked too if I'd requested a belt change & it didn't happen.

 

If he had changed the belts, your bill would have been a lot higher (you probably wouldn't have the car back yet).

Pretty unlikely that the mechanic did anything to cause this.

 

Yes, and I hope they didn't charge you for for it or else they're going to pay for everything.
By the way Greg, is it one or two belts broke?

 

++ -

also, dare we ask what turned out to happen to the valve gear, etc? Many owners probably want to know the final outcome even if is may be a little painful to relate.

This may be the first "live sighting" of a timing belt failure in only 4 years that I have seen here. Hang in there -

James

 

Agree with the others -- you have to find out what caused the break. Hopefully, the engine is not too badly buggered. I'd be pissed too in your situation, but you need to know why the belt broke to determine if it really was his fault or just one of those things. A 2003 belt should not have let go unless something happened to it (it was cut by something) or the tensioner bearing siezed up. Or was the car sitting unused for 4 years? Once you know what caused it, you'll have the ammo to go back to him and hold him responsible for not carrying out the work as requested. BTW, did he give you a reason for not changing the belts?

And please, turn off your caps lock. Typing in all caps is REALLY obnoxious.

 

so your mechanic changed some wires etc etc

and you "think" it / he had something to do with your timing belt breaking ?

wow ! scary mentality

i feel sorry for your mechanic having you as a customer

 

Ouch...sorry to hear of your misfortune. Keep your chin up, keep it in perspective...nobody lost a limb. Lots of support here. Please let us know what you find and post pics once your mechanic has it apart. Your experience may assist others. Good luck, hope the rebuild goes well.

 

Ditto, if you told him to do a major and he didn't, why did you accept the car? The work he did do has nothing to do with the belt breaking.

 

I mean no offense, but having "only" been here about 4 years I have seen at least 4 timing belt failure issues. Spirot (308), who has posted in this thread, and Tmobilguy (348) who no longer is on Fchat are just two of those I can name off hand. So I guess I am just commenting that not seeing something doesnt mean that its not happening. In Tmobilguys case he ended up dumping the car because it was just to expensive to justify.

While I would be VERY careful not to blame the mechanic until knowing the cause, and would certainly give him every opportunity to help determine the cause, I would be equally careful in having it inspected by a third party before ANYONE else gets a chance to touch anything. While the belts should certainly have been replaced, its a bit coincidental that one let go so soon after being serviced. As Verell pointed out, inspecting the belt could help to determine the cause.

Do you know why the mechanic didnt replace the belts as you asked him to do? Scarey to contemplate the costs involved in fixing this one, but its going to be spendy thats for sure. Good luck with it, you have a good support group here to help you through the pain.

 

Armani - I feel the pain, but my curiosity is just killing me.

(and maybe a lot of others, too -)

What happened? For instance, were you idling at a light, just driving, or pulling it up to redline through the gears?

Did it signal anything with some kind of noise before the event?

And, of course, when they get it apart I am sure everyone would give great thanks to see some internal pictures.

Look at it this way - you now have a story such that you will not very often have to buy drinks at the bar during F-club meetings any more!

James

 

Yup, guys will cross the room to listen to you tell how did $30K damage to your Ferrari engine.

Actually the best one I heard was a guy who had a Cessna 185 with amphibious floats. The story was he had it up on the Mckenzie or Yukon river in Alaska and it came untied from the dock. Before it was seen it was to far away to catch it and getting out into the rollers. It rolled over and broke up, last he seen was a mangled float drifting down stream. It wasnt insured.

 

As a belt failure victim ... I know the pain... I think its natrual to want to lay blame to someone... but I think the truth is stuff happens!

I would look for oil, or solvent that leaked in and got on the belt ... in my case the belt was not broken but it had shed about 20 teeth.... so still was a belt "faliure", none the less when you have a belt break or fail, mostly likely there is a cause other than an old belt. bearings, drive gears or some other seisure? cam shaft's ok? etc.

Most likely you will have every valve bent on that side, and your camshaft will be ok. ... its a matter of taking the heads off, new valves and guides... file down any smile marks on the pistons, zip it back up, retime and new belt and she will be ready for the road. I would change the other belt as well so they are both new and on the same schedule.

I was really lucky that I have GREAT FRIENDS that helped with most of the work... all I did was take stuff off and clean it up. Hope there are others as kind in MD.

 

Yep, what Tom said and use it as a learning experience, I did.

 

While this is a terrible thing to have happen, it is fabulous to share the details here so that we can rationally decide on belt replacement intervals. It would be very interesting to see the real details, pictures of the belts and internal engine damage. The cause of the failure is very important to many of us. What in the hell happened?

 

Not sure how changing spark plugs and wires on a TR has anything to do with the belt system. Heck your not even near that area. And besides the timing belt covers seal off this area almost completely from debris falling in from the top. To even think about blaming the tech for a failure like this is almost absurd.

 

What kind of spark plug wires? Did your mechanic try some other type of wires first had problems with backfiring and rough engine running? The reason I ask is a friend of mine had an '85 TR. He and a buddy of his re-did the wires with some metal core high performance wires. They called me it to tell me it was running very badly and backfiring. I got in my car and drove to York to look at the car. I told them we should change back the old wires and he should order a set for the TR. We changed the wires and the car ran smoothly. The next day he was out driving and called me up again. Now he said it lost power. I drove up again and checked and his right belt broke-ended up bending 2 exhaust valves. I don't know that much, but I thought that maybe all of the jumping, coughing, and backfiring the motor was doing put a strain on the belt.

Sorry for interjecting my experience.