You cannot believe how stupid I feel... just killed my Sapphire... only had it a month...

Last week I remember thinking "I really ought to get the cambelt changed" 'cos I had bought the car with no history, so who knows when it was last changed??

But doh! Today I found out the hard hard hard way

Shit, have called my mechanic who's gonna come get the car next week to investigate but I think we all know what he'll find


The ONLY thing that consoles me is well it's a good chance to get the head polished and ported, and maybe a Group A head gasket...

 

Sorry to hear that Hope you were lucky and didnt damage to much

 

Thats going to be a expensive mistake

 

i know how you feelin i had my clio 16valve chipped next day cut out cam belt snapped wasnt even on high miles either luckily only bent 4 valves, im sure it can easily be sorted if you whip head of yourself

 

i feel for you dude, i had something similar except mine pulled the threads on the tensioner stud and threw its belt, snapped the inlet cam, bent all 16valves, wrecked 2 pistons, ovalled the valve guides made a real mess!!!!

Pugo

 

misery, had a couple of belts let go on me. once when i crashed into a tree and the bonnet jammed into the belt. that only bent 2 valves as the engine was at idle speed and stopped quickly.

2nd time i had just rebuilt the engine after gasket failure. also took the opportunity to have the head ported . put it all back together and followed the instructions in the manual about the tensioner. couple of miles down the road it let go at about 6k rpm and bent all 16 valves.

one word of warning about the tensioner. in the manal, i says to turn the tensioner clockwise and then tighten up the locknut. however, the tension of the cambelt pushes back against the pulley and tries to undo the lock nut - successfully in my case (i think the stud was just a touch loose). if you turn the tensioner anti-clockwise and then do the locknut up, the belt is trying to tighten the locknut so it can never come undone.

 

Been there, done that - 16 bent valves for me

 

Its worse when s 'pro' has built the engine. I had a 2.0 zetec off a guy here in leics for my old fiesta. Lasted 500 miles. Some of the valves were bent (cos he didnt do the tensioner up properly) upshot was i had a melted head and 4 knackered pistons. Bought all the bits myself and rebuilt it. Fired first time, still goes very, very well with the new owner!! My point is: It willl be sweet when its fixed.

 

Yeah hope so

 

sorry 2 hear that m8 but it happens ive done it couple a times, but atleat u knw ur never gna let it happen again! u shud always change em when buyin a car u never know and its best 2 get the full kit including tensioner, i hear the gates kit is the bollox

 

So what is the time scale of a cam belt? i had mine changed seven years ago but i have only done 10k in that time! do the perish??? is it worth changing again???

 

for the price of a cam belt i would change it once a year

 

agree wiv alan no point in takin risks and i fink 7 yrs is a long time get it done!!!

 

ill buy one and get it done!!!!! thanks

 

same thing happened to me and i had mine booked in for the day afer. problem was i was going sideways at about 40 at the time........ car is now completly dead

 

When was the last time you had it done ???

 

I been there to with my car.
The cambelt "jumped" on the way home when i had bought the car.
All 16 valves toucht the pistons and i had to replace all.
I can imagine what you feel right now.
All i can say is change it if your not sure how old the one on the car is.

 

Oh man that must have been hard, on the way home from buying it... damn at least I had mine a month before it went...

And due to... whatever... the car is still on my drive, due to go to the garage tomorrow, then I find out how bad it is.

Fingers crossed...