how you know when ur timing belts knackered?

dumbass question,
how would you know that ur timing belts gone?I'm imagin a big bang?any got any images of the damage it does, or can describe wat damage it causes?havin never had any of my past or current vehicles have a timing belt go, I aint got the foggyest wat happens when it goes tits up

I am no expert but I was told that (on a TDi 200) when the timing belt goes it won't do much damage except to bend a timing pin which is pennies to replace - plus the cost of the belt but apparently the engine damage is minimal.
Maybe someone can confirm this?

Ross

if yer lucky, some bent pushrods.
if yer unlucky, bent valves, holed pistons too.

Just Change The F...er . And Hope You'll Never Find Out What It Sound's Like When It Goes.

Had one go in me Vectra 2 weeks after it was changed by the main stealer. Interesting noise it makes, and it took nearly 2 weeks for them to rebuild it. 16 bent valves, 4 knackered pistons, head skim, water pump...

almost worth the inconvenience then?


mind yu - finking about it a bit more - if they (m)ucked up the timing belt - it makes yu a bit wary of the injun after - dont it?

It was still under warranty at the time. Ran it into the ground after that. Sold it for £250 with 150k miles, 4 bald tyres, worn out disks all round, no MOT, no Tax and broken rear electric windows. It was the CDX model and the rest of the toys worked...

sounds a bit like the motors i buy as "good runner, years MOT, fine example for year"

I had the cam belt go whilst going around a roundabout in Brixton. First I knew was the power steering when very heavy. Then I noticed all the dash lights were on , then realised I have no power under my right foot and struggeld to get the car to the side of the road before someone behind rammed me. I noticed no noises.
Thankfully it was a company car that got sent to Vauxhall. All valves bent, pistons holed, bores wrecked.... new engine took 6 weeks to be delivered and fitted.
Drive it like you stole it was my motto.
If you are lucky you will only bend a few pushrods... very lucky and you might not bend any, depends on how fast the engine is spinning at failure.
Very unlucky and all the bits that come in contact with each other will destroy the entire inside of the engine.

Aye, just changed mine (2.5 N/A) and feel much more comfortable now! Worst that can happen to the 12J is bent push rods and possibly some slight damage to piston heads (only aluminium). The valves come down straight so should they come into contact with the piston there might be a slight mark / indentation, but the push rods which are weaker will give. The 200 tdi is the same I believe but there is the possibility of damaging the rocker arms too (don't know why). Then again, they are only cheap to change.

I didn't even lock anything in place when I changed it, just made sure everything was lined up as before. I used tipex lines and the actual timing marks. The only thing that kept moving was the injection pump sprocket but its not hard to move back into place! One bit of advice I can give you is this: If you take the timing cover off and your belt looks like new - do not be fooled! I almost didn't bother changing mine until I was told by local mechanic that they only look old once they've broken! If it looks in good condition, still change it because it wont be as new as you think.

-Pos

Your timing belt is wrecked when you turn your engine over, it won't start and if you look into the oil filler nothing is moving.

If you suspect it might be in need of changing, change it, you don't really want it to get to the stage its wrecked.

When the belt goes its more or less silent, its just like someone has turned it off.

When it breaks among other things the valves stop moving, this is where the damage is caused because the valves that are down when it breaks stay down until the piston comes and hits it. This force is transfered up the valve stem which could be damaged but usually not, across the rocker shaft which could again be bent/broken at this point because of the sudden violent force. If the rocker doesn't break up then the full force is sent down the pushrod, these are the most likely parts to get damaged. They usually deform quite badly, some of them make it; these are the ones from valves that were up enough not to get hit at the time, however you would replace them all as they may LOOK straight but are infact bent.

I have some pictures posted of what they look like after a belt snap on here somewhere.