i feel sick :( cambelt snapped..

[Stephen16vGSi]

okay, we all know i just had my cambelt done, sunday.. dephaser.. pullys..
am really not in the mood for told you so's!

car has been amazing the past 2 days, apart from the slow down revving issue im sure that the car had. guess this was a cambelt issue.
anyways.. seen a 182, desided to go see if he wanted to have a play.. all went well! about 3 miles later "normal driving" the car made a clunk noise and engine died. the starter motor now engages with high speed.. guessing cambelt or a snapped pully..

common problems after cambelt snapping on a f4r motor is?
is this going to cost me a arm n' leg (not labour)?


my mate had this issue on his 172, after a top end rebuild, the bottom end gave way within 20miles... im worried, i already lost 1 clio 3/4 weeks 4/5000£

 

[Martin_172]

your description is breif, was the aux belt and tensioner changed too? sounds like possible re use of aux belt, tensioner has let go and your aux belt has made its way under your cambelt!

 

[lemonnobby]

so who done the belt
nothing commen if it done correctly about 700 quid parts

 

[MicKPM]

Prob not a snapped belt but a slipped pulley due to incorrect sequencing/torque on fixings or the fixings were not replaced (as recommended) and so weren't holding everything correctly.

So what's it gonna cost? Between £850-1100 for a specialist to do it... honestly, why would you consider doing anything else now at this point in the game?

Mick

 

[Sir_Dave]

An engine is 250 quid, just buy another one, but get a SPECIALIST to do the cambelt before u put it in, not some bloke down the pub, borrowing some tools he doesnt know how to use ...

 

[TimR26]

You should have taken it to Birchdown instead of trying to save a few quid.

 

[Martin_172]

depends how fussy you are and what budget you have to play with, if my car let its belt go id be taking it to a specialist and having a top end rebuild so i knew everything was new, tight and good to go. but as said, im fussy!

 

[MicKPM]

I would also be thoroughly inspecting the camshaft pulleys and ends of the camshafts to. When these 'spin' the fixings have a habbit of digging in to the cam pulley and it kills the mating face so re-using it is an instant weak spot and it will most likely fail again.

 

[Martin_172]

^^ theres exactly why you want to be using specialists for jobs like this

 

[lemonnobby]

ive been reading your posts i think your mechanic has incorrectly done the bottom pulley up and timing has slipped.
mick ive never seen that but we dont see a lot at dealers anymore.

 

[Stephen16vGSi]

i spent nearly £9000 on clio in 2/3 months.. this car needs to be sorted or i have nothin to show for my self. after spending 3/4000£ on my silver 172 i desided to save a few ton getting a cheaper job.. yes lesson learnt, but i really don't have much money left to sort her out..

 

[steviet]

£9k on a clio???? How??? Anyway, The phrase, buy cheap, buy twice springs to mind in this situation, and youve found out the hard way. Best bet would be to get the money together to get it looked at by a SPECIALIST (youre lucky enough to have one local, im not!). As mentioned above, get hold of a new engine, get belts, and whatever other ancillaries may need doing done, and get them to fit the engine. It may seem like a big outlay now, but what price piece of mind that the work done on the car wont let you down.........

 

[fletch8]

Personally if it was me I'd strip the car and sell it (think you got it for a good price iirc) new engine etc seems a hassle and then even more hassle attempting to sell it after that.

Granted you should of took it to a specialist in the first place but what's done is done. Does your mechanic have his own garage that would of offered a warranty?

 

[Stephen16vGSi]

bought the 172, had 3/4k work done including mega big service at renault.. crashed it after 1/2mths, bought this 182 cup, paid £600 insurance deposit, cheap cambelt, dephaser ect.. i had 10k in savings and got 1200 left.. it all has gone on clio.

172 trophy motor for sale £300.. best bet is buy it, fit it.. sell it

or try and sell in none running condition.

 

[Stephen16vGSi]

he said he will strip it and see whats broke.. but i cant be assed.. what if i buy new valves, gaskets, cambelt.. get 20miles down the road and bang!

 

[mr.pink87]

Crap mechanic is crap. F4R engine is way to complex for cowboy'ing action.

 

[Freeman_1986]

not had a lot of luck recently have ya mate.... thought i was goin through a s**t time with mine at the mo... i feel for ya mate

 

[Stephen16vGSi]

to be fare, he aint a cowboy, just never worked on a f4r before... stupid letting him experiment on mine, but whew,.. lesson learnt.. speak to him tomorrow, suppose its not gonna do me any harm letting him try,.. but i think am gonna strip her back my self and take lots of pictures.

 

[mr.pink87]

Proper mechanic informs himself about servicing procedures on cars he has not done before.

 

[steviet]

Proper mechanic informs himself about servicing procedures on cars he has not done before.

This.

 

[Alastair.]

fukkk bet your mechanic has crapped his panties.

 

[MicKPM]

mick ive never seen that but we don't see a lot at dealers anymore.

I've raided BTM's spares pile a few times because of this rather than pay £135 for a new one but it depends on what pulley has let go. If its the crank pulley bolt, the most common, then they're fine and it just bends valves but if its the exhaust camshaft pulley itself that slips due to over/under tightening of the nut and/or stretching of the stud the pulley is forced to keep turning by the drive of the belt. This causes the pulley to start friction welding itself to the cam which in turn damages the mating face rendering the pulley 100% scrap.

I'm sure I've got some photos of the last one this happened to that graced my workshop.

 

[Mike_RS]

Jesus mate, these things cant be done on the cheap! Its the most important part on the car, there are hundreds of threads explaining how tricky the F4r is to time! I don’t know where your getting a engine from for £250 all the ones on ebay are £500 - £850

I’m not sure what i would do in your situation.. Its going to be costly either way :dapprove:

 

[Austin-182]

Feel sick for you mate, 10k!!!!! House deposit blown on a clio :/

 

[TimR26]

I paid less for my Megane

 

[Fred@BTM]

Sorry to hear it, but there is a reason why eveyone says GO TO A RESPECTED SPECALIST

i rest my case

 

[Iceberg_172]

Hi mate, Im not gonna shout out SPECIALIST like nearly every other person on your thread because it isnt essential to take it to one and im sure you dont want to hear it all the time.

But someone said earlier, a proper mechanic reads the process through if he hasnt done one before. Lets face it, even SPECIALISTS had to start someplace!

I read through the procedure a few times and made sure i understood it when i done mine (a few people helped on here), and got the proper tools and triple checked everything and its still fine months later.

Just make sure (if hes doing it again) that he doesnt miss anything out. The torque settings are extremely important, the shafts and pulleys need to be free from grease/oil/dirt and replace all the bolts it tells you to. If you need to wait a few days on parts then so be it.

Just one last thing though, If you were paying someone to do it, then i would have atleast taken it to someone who has done one before.

 

[chriscummins7]

Gutted for you mate. Lesson learnt ey!

 

[MicKPM]

The trouble is any monkey with a spanner set and some ambition can setup a business and call themself a "Specialist". Some have cracked AutoData processes where as others have eBayed versions of Dialogys... You don't question it or their ability but they don't have any real experience or understanding of the vehicles and can do some real damage by 'playing' at your expense! This is why it's essential you do your homework or ask questions before letting anyone loose on your motor. Yes this place does seem "Specialist" orientated rather than DIY but there's a good reason for that whihc can be found with ease via the search function. You wouldn't go to PC World pick the badest looking machine and hand over a wedge of cash for it without seeing if it can use the internet or view p**n would you?

I've had many un-easy customers in the past worried about my ability's after already forking out for a job to be done once and as I've got nothing to hide gladly explain things and answer questions (I even put things in writting as I fully document everything from servicing to diagnostic reports). Recently, one customer paid a local garage £580 to do his '182 timing belt which is not only is top whack but they did wrong (twice). He said "It went in quick and came out slow and thirsty"... sure enough the timing was wrong which I checked and demonstrated to him on the spot which cost him £20 (The price to replace the end caps and a beer my way). Eventually it cost him another £380 to replace the belt run and re-time it (along with replacing specific parts that the other garage didn't change like the siezed aux belt tensioner) which is money he could've saved IF he'd come to me in the first place.

Believe it or not, people like myself, Fred and Danny aren't here to extract your cash. Yes we charge for our time but we also have a genuine passion for supporting these vehicles which is more than you can say about the main dealer networks and other independents and doing a job right/keeping the customer happy is our number one goal.

Mick

 

[AKFM1]

thing is, the specialist dont charge much if any more for the job, but you know the work is guaranteed! The work wont be rushed and will be taken full care of! Ive never been happier with my clio ever since Mick ^ (diamond motors) rebuilt my engine and feels so much more tight and if anything, quicker! I went to local garages to see how much they would charge and all of them wanted more money than what the specialist wanted. And best of all, diamond motors came to me as i live no where near any specialists and did it on my drive. So Big Thumbs up! If i need any more work, i will do that 2-3 hours drive for the best work!

P.s I feel your pain mate, hope it all works out for you! guess your next car wont be a clio! good luck !

 

[fletch8]

i bought a 172 and wasnt sure wether or not the belts had been done. got a few prices and in the end went to birchdown (sorry mick fred etc) they were not any more expensive than other garages, pretty well priced, but by going there i had a warranty on the work and a lot more piece of mind. hell they even gave me a van to tootle about in for the day!

 

[pendulumx]

What gets me is we knew he was doing a cack job and said so but you kept defending him... he never did the job properly by getting the timing wrong and lied about the reasons (wrong locking pin indeed) to cover his lack of knowledge, now he's f**ked your car up completely and you still defend him!

We said take it elsewhere and that's what your going to have to do now if you want any chance of it actually being fixed properly, your mechanic's got no chance of doing a decent job on it, if he was as decent as you say he'd pay for it to go to a specialist as it was his screw up!

 

[AKFM1]

^are you his friend?

 

[Stephen16vGSi]

yes.. brought up with him

 

[Stephen16vGSi]

can i brake anythin off this current motor to fund another motor?

 

[fletch8]

almost everything i think, parts alone should get you at least a grand at a guess

 

[BIGASH]

can i brake anythin off this current motor to fund another motor?

Do you mean on the car or on the engine? Personally I would try and work out the damage done to your engine and repair the existing one. Hope you manage to get it sorted

 

[Jonny1*2]

weren't you the lad that we all told to go to Birchdown? Sorry to say it mate, but trying to save money always tends to get people in s**t.

 

[Jonny1*2]

almost everything i think, parts alone should get you at least a grand at a guess

behave :S

 

[fletch8]

behave :S

not from the engine mate, from the rest of the car (was just a guess am i miles out?)