desperate need of help
 

Hi All,

Can somebody help me please.

I have 1.8t zt and Saturday my drive belt snapped on way home and car slowly died, no bang or knock just cut out.
I changed the belt myself on Sunday and the car failed to start, it tried but just wouldn’t fire.

I called AA who didn’t even look at car he just said some of the belt must of got into the cams and my car is a write off. I openned the cam cover and there was some belt in there but I don’t believe it would of caused that much damage as I heard no knocking or banging it just cut out.

Im hoping that maybe the belt has just caused the cam to jump a notch which is why it is failing to start.

Does anybody have a diagram or manaul that shows me the timing setting as im going to reset the cogs myself to see if the car is salvagable.

Does anybody have any advice or thoughts? I would assume if my engine was destroyed I would of heard something crashing together but everything sounds fine it just wont fire.

I think AA man just wanted to get home.

Hi Phil,
Edit: Ah, sorry, your cambelt is still intact? But there are fragments of auxiliary drive belt interfering with it? The Haynes manual includes timing instructions.

When the cambelt snaps there's always a risk of damage to valves and/or pistons. The only way to find out is to take off the cylinder head and look. You should do that straight away. Search the forum and you'll find lots of information to help you.

Just out of interest, what mileage has the car covered and do you know if the cambelt has ever been renewed?

Simon

Oh dear, auxy drive belt or cam drive belt, if its the camshaft drive belt you will have serious damage!

If it's a turbo you might be lucky, I think turbo engines run on a lower compression than NA engines so valves & pistons might have missed each other.
I'm sure the 1.8 gurus will be along to put you right. ;)

Sorry to hear of your plight !
Without doubt, if the belt snapped, you would have bent some valves even though you never heard any noise.
The problem is that both cams usually just stop holding valves open whilst the crankshaft 'freewheels' & the pistons hit any open valves.
All this can happen in a short space of time.
As for timing marks, with crank pulley & timing covered removed, on the crankshaft sprocket, you will see 2 notches, on the oil pump/front casing you'll see a vertical on the casting & this lines up in between the 2 dots.
On the camshafts, both sprockets will have 'Ex or Exhaust' & 'In or Inlet' stamped on them.
On the Inlet cam sprocket, the 'In or Inlet' needs to point towards the front of the car
On the Exhaust cam sprocket, the 'Ex or Exhaust' needs to point towards the rear.
Both sprockets will have a cut-out & these need to line up with each other after the belt has been tensioned along with the crank sprocket.
I hope this make sense !

Hi all thanks for your help.

To confirm the Cam belt is fine, it was the alternator (fan) belt that snapped and fragments got into the cam belt which im guessing made it jump a notch. The cam belt itself is fine which why Im hoping there wont be damage.

All I need is a comprehensive guide showing me how to re-align the cogs so that it works again (hopefully)

Hi,

I guess this is what you need: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Qn8ljQKZxA

Do you reckoni might be ok or ami booking it in the scrap yard?

Sorry, misunderstood your original post !
Even if it's just jumped teeth, which it probably has, I reckon you won't have escaped damage !!
Depends how far you want to go but you may be looking at head off & inspect.
At least then, you can make an informed decision.
Take a look at the link provided by Beinet1 & also the timing mark instructions I provided.
You may also find full instructions by doing a google search too.
It's worth re-timing the engine first.

Re-timing the engine and giving it a try won't do any harm and a simple compression test would confirm any damage. With a belt failure one revolution of the crankshaft and all the damage is done, in your case with the belt still in tact there may be more damage than with a failure!