Cam belt failure!

S

Stringster

Missed gear
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What a disaster this week has turned into. First off split up with my wife and yesterday my cam belt snapped (waiting for the third).
Its being looked at properly on Monday, but the first opinion was that the key has sheared from the back of the bottom pulley. Will wait to see how much damage has been done.
What shocked me was the way it happened - not what I expected.
Started up fine, drove a couple of mins, stopped at traffic lights and the engine was a bit lumpy on tick over. Pulled away from traffic lights and engine cut out. Trying to start it again just sounded like the starter motor wasn't engaging. No metallic noises at all.
Depends what the damage is, but any ideas what this is going to cost?
Garage said roughly £800, but hard to estimate yet.
 
Unfortunately once the cambelt goes repairs costs are steep. I think £800 sounds reasonable considering that a former colleague of mine paid well over a grand to repair his damaged 4cyl Omega.
 
if you do rebuild due to bent rods and piston i would upgrade them if you are planning to mod her. Sorry to here about the other half take it you did not want to break up.
 
When my belt was put on wrong the head rebuild cost me £800 plus they did other bits as well tyring to diagnose the problems.
 
I'd be inclined to say the pistons rods and the rest of the bottom end will be fine, head and valves will be toast

you have to weigh up the options, you can drop in another engine complete, but you then dont know its real history etc. or you can fix the engine you have for roughly the same money.

a head rebuild with new guides and valves will likely stretch to around 600-800quid as suggested, but it might be an idea to buy a good used head (probably 2-300quid?) and work that over with new stem seals and relap the valves. You can also then inspect the bores etc when the engines apart to see if they need work.

Depending on how much of it you can do yourself you could have it back up and running for under 500quid, but expect to pay a lot more if your not doing it yourself.
 
highly unlikely you will do bottom end damage at those revs. you will have done exhaust valves on cyl 2 and 3 if I recall.
what mileage have you done? might be an easier option to just pick up a second hand engine, you may even be able to flog the old engine to someone with some spanners for a buildup project
 
Pistons will most likely be ok, i would get a used head and whack it on there, its what i did when my bottom pulley gave in,cost me under 250 for the head, gaskets, bolts, pulley and belt kit
 
Just had a call from the garage - not good news.
It is the key that sheared off, but as it had been getting progressivly worse it has damaged the crankshaft. Majority of the vlaves bent as well.
The garage suspect it wasnt torqued correctly and lockthreaded when it was replaced (before I bought the car).
So, it seems a replacement engine is the only option. Any tips on finding a good one? Its a 1.8T APU on there at them moment.
There is one on eBay for £750 with around 75K on it.
 
docurley said:
if you do rebuild due to bent rods and piston i would upgrade them if you are planning to mod her. Sorry to here about the other half take it you did not want to break up.
Click to expand...

:iagree:
 
gutted for you stringster , i had exactly the same thing happen to my 1.8 non-turbo, key sheared, head was in a right old mess, had it rebuilt and got 20 quid change from a grand ! :faint:

runs like a dream now though

depends what you can get , but for me it ended up being the best option, best price i could get for a second hand engine was around the £600 mark, by the time i got a price for fitting, and making it good, i was way over what it cost to rebuild.

if the £800 quoted is still valid for a rebuild i would say thats a cracking price.
 
Unfortunately as I have lost my drive and garage I'm unable to do any work myself (and no it wasnt my choice - caught the bitch with someone. However I loose my house, kids, money and now car (sorry about the rant)).
I have to way up the value of the car and the cost of the new engine and fitting. I would like to keep the car but wouldnt spend more than 1500 on it.
Anyone seen the Audi rebuilt engines from the US on eBay? Seem to be able to get them for around £1000.
 
If you can locate parts you could use my drive, but south wales may not be any good for you, only take a day to swap

Sorry for you mate, i know how you feel, i lost a lot this time last year
 
Thanks for the offer - got some family in Cwm so visit South Wales every now and then.
Seems to be only one engine on eBay with 70k on it for £750 plus £50 postage.
I am very tempted by the Audi re-manufactured one from the US for just over £1k. Just asked them for shipping costs.
Ebay Item number: 120262318095
 
You cant have searched very hard:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Vag-1-8t-Apu-...oryZ9889QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/AUDI-A3-1-8T-...ryZ10372QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Theres more on there, a few being FWD variants from golfs/A3's however i think that you can swap enough parts around from the engine you already have to make it run.

There are also 4 or 5 A4's breaking and they may well have engines available...

i searched for "1.8T engine" btw just incase you wanted to look for yourself.
 
audi upgrades
Need to sort it out soon so I've got it down to two options at the moment:
1 - replacement engine - 70k with 3 month warranty for £500, plus fitting for £500.
2 - rebuild - company in Cardiff will collect the car, rebuild engine and drop off for £1000 total.
Both come out around the same price so now I need to decide the best option...
Any opinions?
 
imo i'd go for the rebuild.

The simple fact is that if the engines coming apart it means that its been checked over. depending how much they change (ie if they do bearings/hone/rings etc as well as the head) you will end up with an engine thats as good as new instead of one thats done 70k which is a better deal.

however at £1000 i'd be querying exactly what they are changing before i would decide.
 
Good point. I'll call them and query a bit more. They seemed obsessed by the oil pump to start with. If the turbo has gone they will replace for £350 as well.
 
If the turbo has gone , I know that there are others out there second hand that people have after turbo upgrades
I feel for you my dear , flamin awfull when you are on the recieving end of someone who cannot stay loyal
I had it myself
But bounce up , all these will make you a better person
You could use my yard too , but I am South Yorkshire
If it helps . let me know
You take care
Oh and yes IMHO I would go for the rebuild too , as secong hand , you dont know what problems it may have
Take care , good luck
Let me know if I can help
Sarah
 
Just read your post mate.. really sorry to hear about your bad news.

Hope you manage to sort your engine out without to much trouble.
 
If the cost is the same, then rebuild. When i blew mine i had a quote from someone for £1200 inc fitting and warrenty, and then some of them were quoting 2k plus vat, i bought a used engine for £500 that had the oil pump changed already as well as the cambelt kit, and i was lucky enough to be able to do the work myself.

Good luck with it, and the driveway offer still stands
 
if they're talking about the oil pump then i guess they're at least looking at the bottom end. You will probably find that even if that price doesnt include rings and shells it probably wont cost that much more to do the rings and shells once the engine is out and in bits anyway.

Why would you suspect the turbo has gone? It was only a timing belt slip? If it had happened at full boost at 6krpm and shattered valves etc ended up making their way into the turbo then fair enough, or if it had suffered a thermal meltdown due to bad fuelling or too much boost etc. But a snapped belt under little load at no revs shouldn't have damaged the turbo in any way.
 
try www.theengineshop.info

they rebuild engine for £1295 inc vat i think, and will undertake fitting.

i have one of their powerplus engines after i bought a car with cambelt failure, put a second hand engine in, only for the same thing that has happened to you 26 miles later! so think before getting second hand engine as i wasted £700 and a lot of elbow grease!

hope your luck turns, i've been having a lot of bad luck recently but not quite like yours.
 
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