Cambelt snapped, was 8 year serviced yesterday (!)

Your average service is oil/filter change, topping up levels of other fluids and doing a once over on the brakes/suspension

Just unfortunate timing I fear
 
As mentioned by Paul W, best thing to do is get an engine from a scrappy and get a back street garage to fit it.

I hear this a lot, but do people really do it? I mean you don't know the history of the engine from the scrappy (I presume) and you could end up with a £1k (guess) bill plus a duff engine?
 
Personally I'd have it repaired, or a second hand head sourced. At least then you know the history of the engine and also that the belt and headgasket are fresh.
 
How many manufacturers are confident that the belt won't need changing before 100k miles? Is it because the service life of any Ford is 100k miles, so they don't expect it to last any longer than this?
 
tbh it would be cheaper to stick a new engine in there tbh.

No way would it be cheaper, but it wouldn't be as costly as you think. Last time I priced up a whole engine was five years ago from renault, £1600 on the crate for a 1.8.

Second hand engine, few hundred?

New engine would instil more confidence, but is it worth it on the car in question?
 
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I'm distrustful of Ford garages when it comes to cambelts, and anything else for that matter. I took mine in at 95k for some new front disks. They rang me on the day and said that during the general health care check they noticed my milage was at 95k and that it was due for a cambelt change and so they priced it up for me.

I declined as I was going to get it done after another months pay.

Later in the day they phoned me back again to say "I'm very sorry to tell you the bad news but your cambelt tensioner has broken and we can fix it and put on a new cambelt for you for £xxxx" (a lot).

I could hardly believe it. It was either the most amazing coincidence or something was up. I asked if they could keep the broken cambelt tensioner for me when I came to pick it up, but they had got rid of it....

Never, ever, will I trust Ford again. It may well have been just shear coincidence, who knows.
 
Run it first.

That's great, very scientific and a fantastic way to gain confidence in an engine that's been sat in a scrappy for god knows how long. And actually running it in a motionless car that probably doesn't even work anymore is a brilliant way to make sure it'll be fine at 80mph for months on end.
 
That's great, very scientific and a fantastic way to gain confidence in an engine that's been sat in a scrappy for god knows how long. And actually running it in a motionless car that probably doesn't even work anymore is a brilliant way to make sure it'll be fine at 80mph for months on end.

Why the hyperbole?

Ask how long it has been sat?

Who cares if the car 'works' your just running the engine, or pulling it and rigging it up so you can run it at worst.

Turning it over will give you a good indication. Not a 100% guarantee of course, but that's the chance you take. It removes a large part of the 'duff engine' concern.
 
[TW]Fox;19272538 said:
The cambelt is not part of the 100,000 mile service. It is a seperate item which must be carried out at 100,000 miles or 10 years.

When I was a technician @ Ford in Oxford there was a white tick box @ 60,000 (later revised to 100,000 for the zetec 'E' & the backtops) for zetec engines on the actual service check list. The old CVH engines was 36K, both were definitely 100% part of the service schedule at that time.... bearing in mind that this was 12 years ago!

So it was part of the service schedule @ Ford main dealers, perhaps this has changed?.
 
I'm not sure about Ford, but Subaru do include the cambelt as part of there servicing schedule on their Impreza's

I bought my Impreza, and the car was fully serviced to 60,000 miles. When I took the car for the 66,000 mile service the garage I went to pointed out that in pencil above the 60k mile service was written "cam belt not changed" it was scheduled to be done in the 60,000 miles. I bought the car at 62k miles. The day after I got my cam belt and tensioners fitted as I didn't fancy having a big engine rebuild bill. I was glad the garage spotted what I seemed to miss.
 
That's great, very scientific and a fantastic way to gain confidence in an engine that's been sat in a scrappy for god knows how long. And actually running it in a motionless car that probably doesn't even work anymore is a brilliant way to make sure it'll be fine at 80mph for months on end.

He's right.

Get a brand new crate engine from Ford. It's the only way to be sure :rolleyes:.
 
Evidence that for ford the cambelt was not due for renewal anyway. So that clears up that issue!

States near the bottom that 100,000 miles or 10 years for the cam belt.

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capture1k.jpg
 
if the manufacturer is saying that their belt will last for 10 years/100k miles (aslong as it is serviced at the correct intervals) then surely it is covered under warranty (even if it comes down to good will) if it fails before this time?
 
Recon or sourced from a rear end write off is probably the best way to go depending on the overall value/condition of the car. A box fresh brand new engine will almost never be worth the cost, I imagine the cost would make most cars a write off in all honesty.

Its relatively easy to drop an engine into a car, and with it being a ford 1.6, should be easy to find a donor.

As said, if you didn't request it be done as part of the service there is no reason why they would do it, as I imagine on that car it would double the price of the service. They probably should have advised you that you should think about having it done, but its a separate issue really.
 
I would be at the very least phoning Ford customer service and asking if they are happy with their cambelt failing a good while before the first change is due. The worst they can do is say "go away".
 
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