cam belt is on its way out

[dave williams]

Hi, i think i was a bit lucky the other day, i took the clio out for a blast down the motorway at the weekend and found that it had a bit of a misfire. I know im due some new spark plugs but i popped my bonnet up when i got back to have a look over it and as the engine was ticking over i could see a piece of material flying around from the cambelt. so i know that is going to need replacing but is there anything else that i might as well get replaced whilst its in bits?

Cheers, Dave.

 

[jenic]

Water pump/dephaser pully. Think thats it really.

 

[bmh.01]

Just to be straight here you're not still running it are you? Like, at all. Frayed cambelt=recipe for disaster (or top end rebuild, depends how you look at it I guess).

 

[dave williams]

Nice one thanks, don't worry, as soon as i noticed it i turned the engine off and thats how its stayed for the past few days, im gonna try and borrow a flat bed and get it to my mechanics as soon as possible. many thanks.

 

[bmh.01]

Ah cool, just thought i'd say as i've seen people keep on driving cars like this! Just thought i'd say incase you didn't know, good luck getting it sorted!

 

[Simon@SprayShack]

How can you see the Cam belt its under a cover?, sure it wasnt the AUX belt? more likely i feel. Chances are your timing is not off, but your plugs are way knackered, thus causing your misfire!

(change both belts and all tensioners (+ dephaser if its high miles, if you dont do this you have to take the CAM belt off again to change it when it starts chatterring))

 

[daddycool]

still don't drive it though, if the aux belt goes it might take out the cam belt

 

[berto]

I was flying along in my 172 a couple years back, then bang! Randomly a pulley that has a plastic cover on it decided to give up and break into 4 pieces, causing the cambelt to slacken and jump.

The AA dude decided to turn it over as the belt hadnt broken and was still in place. Funnily enough it didnt start.

Stripped the head off and the head and valves were shafted!

It the plastic thing the DEPHASER that has been mentioned?

 

[dave williams]

Its the belt on the left hand side of the engine underneith the upper engine mount? Just to let you know im not much of a mechanic, just saw a belt and thought, that could be the cam belt, iv heard all sorts of horror stories with the cam belts. Im pretty sure the timing isnt out cause the misfire seems to be completely random, iv got new HT leads and coil pack on it so i think its just the spark plugs causing the misfire. Its an 02 plate on 65000ish miles so i might just bite the bullet and sort the whole lot, more money to spend Whooo! Anybody recomend a place to get the bits from?
Many thanks.