Kevin B

Bad end to a bad week…

Was driving home from work on Friday night at about 1800hrs, when all of a sudden the engine cut our, after trying to restart the engine with no joy, eventually a mother and her 2 teenage kids stopped and helped me push the car into a side road (was on the brow of a hill with a queue of traffic building up behind me so couldn’t push it on my own – it’s a 4X4 Saph Cossie for those that don’t know).
After a phone call to my trusty mechanic (Dad) he arrived and took a closer look (in the pouring rain and howling wind) and it turns out the crank was turning over but the cams weren’t! The cambelt was intact but had stripped the teeth round the crank pulley, so expecting the worst we towed the car back to his, and I went on my way in the faithful Belmont (family RS back-up car).

Round his at 0800 Saturday morning, again freezing cold but at least no rain, we took the head off to expose 12 of the 16 valves bent, and all 4 pistons ‘kissed’, thankfully they are not bad enough to warrant replacement, but after stripping the head down, and writing a full list of parts required the bill has not reached £800!

Thankfully I was driving in slow moving traffic and couldn’t have been doing more than 10-15mph and stopped straight away so I think that saved the pistons, just lucky it wasn’t on the way to Maccy D’s after a Norfolk meet!!

Now the main reason for this post, is to remind you all to check your cam belts regularly. Before some of you start with ‘serves you right for not changing yours regularly’, this was a genuine ford cam belt fitted (and tensioned correctly I might add) between a year and a year and a half ago (approx 15,000 miles), and after looking closely at it, 12 of the teeth had completely sripped, and every single one left on the belt had started to lift and would only have been a matter of time before they peeled off! Also, before anybody suggests oil contamination/tensioner faults etc, the belt was fitted when fitting new gaskets/oil seals, tensioner and water pump, and there was no oil to be seen anywhere. It seems using genuine ford bits doesn’t always pay off (that said all the new bits that are being fitted are ford)!!

I would just like to say a big thankyou to Mike Rainbird for sourcing the parts required at a very good price, Stu & Kenny at Motorsport Developments for their advice and taking the time to reply to my e mails, and to Richard Nathan for listening to me swear a lot late Friday night after it happened.

Also just for info, please before paying a ford dealer an extortionate amount of money, phone round and see if you can get genuine bits cheaper elsewhere – just to give you an idea, the list of bits priced at ford came to a whopping £1600, the list priced by Mr Rainbird came to just over £300!!!!!

Lastly, it was dark, freezing cold, pi55ing down with rain and blowing a force 9 gale when I broke down on a very busy road and as I said, about 20 cars drove past me after queueing behind me. Eventually this woman and her kids stopped, my point is that a lot of the people that passed me were blokes, and not one of them helped me. Please if you see someone broken down blocking the road get out and give them a push, it helps the person that has broken down, and clears the road a lot quicker than just sitting in the car waiting to drive round than whilst swearing!!

Hopefully this will save the same thing happening to someone else?

St3V3_C

Hope it's all fixed up soon mate

M7 COS

That sounds pretty shit mate.

Hope you get it all sorted soon!

St3V3_C

PS - I have had to think very hard about stopping to help after I stopped for some woman with a flat, could have changed it in 5 mins. She said "I'll wait for the AA." No thanks, or anything like that

Zetec Andy

I can vouch for that, broke down last year in York, right at the front of the traffic aswell and every car passed me, even a police car wouldnt stop and help.

Eventually a tow truck was passing, i asked would have take a look and within 10 minutes it was running again

SapphyMike

I change cambelt every 3k miles or once a year.

also, i know what you mean re broken down - i had to push my old car across 3 lanes of the M1 (in slow moving traffic cos of road works) cos it over heated and no one would help me, yet people were pushing another car further up the road.

Disabled Account

Kevin B,

Sorry to hear of your problems.....But are you SURE that the cam belt was only 15 k miles old??? Did you do that last belt change, or did you get it done somewhere that "said" it had been done?

Curious, as the wear/condition that you describe does not fit in with the miles you've covered

Kevin B

Doug

It was fitted by my father/myself (for info he is a very methodical/fussey mechanic as anybody who knows him will testify) not by a garage that 'allegedly' fitted a new cambelt.

Spoke to Stu and he said this was certainly not a common problem!

Just typical of 'the boardman luck' I guess!

Adrian

Bad luck Kev.

And I can testify his dad is fussy and methodical.

bud-weis

that's a bit shitty mate, why don't you spend the money on the mighty belmont

Linsay

Bad Luck

because of numerous repairs to my RS, I think i have had at least 3 in the last 18 months
1 when the sump gasket was replaced, 1 when the water pump was replaced etc

Will be having no. 4 next month when the stage 3 head goes back on the RS

Kevin B

From now on, thats what we will do, but in fairness it was only just over a year old anyway. Baring in mind I do about 12000 a year in it, the every 3k option is a bit over the top though...

SapphyMike

Maybe, but at £20 a belt, its not too bad.. cheaper than £400+ top end rebuild.

sorry to hear about your engine though

RichardPON

Glad you're all sorted in a way Kev.

Some good prices Mike must have done you on those bits too

Best of luck with it all, and if you need anything, let me know.

Kevin B

Mike - You do have a point, but honestly, its a funny state of affairs when you have a car that you change the cambelt on 4 times a year!! lol

Rich, Cheers mate, will do

SapphyMike

LOL Kevin,

I dont have that problem lol - have a runaround car!