Sudden loss of drive

[Scml]

Was out tonight in 5th at 60-70mph when suddenly there was alot of noise and no drive. Knocked it out of gear and the engine died, tried 5th then 4th down to 1st until the car came to a stand still. Tried turning it on and it was not having it just lots of horrid noise. Looked
under the bonnet there was no gearbox oil everywhere or engine oil. The fan belt was frayed and snapped but that won't explain loss of drive suddenly. Shafts seem in place.
Any ideas on what would of caused this?? cam belt??

Cheers steve.

 

[DrR]

They don't have fan belts, sounds like your aux belt has snapped. Has it been changed since new?

 

[TimR26]

Sounds like the auxiliary belt has gone and taken the cambelt with it. Was it due to be changed?

 

[Scml]

That's what I mean the aux belt sorry lads. It's not due to be changed for a few thousand yet. So what we thinking cam belt? Is it a common problem? The aux belt has been changed since new.

New head time then?? Or cheaper to just change the engine? It's a 172 cup btw

 

[Tunst]

It does sound like the cambelt has slipped

The aux belt will have snapped and wrapped it self around the bottom pully taking the cambelt with it

 

[172Ben]

they are due at 5years or 72k, so it should have been changed at least once, both of them.

AUX gone and taken cambelt with it?

 

[Scml]

Cam belt it is then lads. Right what next

 

[sideways danny]

sounds like it's an aux belt failure and it's caused the crank pulley to slip. You will have at least 12 bent valves, if not all 16. Rebuildable in a lot of cases, but will need a bore scope sticking down the plug holes to see if there's terminal piston damage first really

 

[Fred@BTM]

i'll place £1 on an upper cambelt idler pulley failure, 16 bent valves and 16 knackerd guides, hello £1200 repair bill

 

[Icarus83]

How handy are you with a spanner...........?

Similar problem with mine, as Fred said above with common fault, front upper idler went on my Cup. Sudden loss of power, engine stalls, when turned over made a BAD noise. Yours sound more like the other problem, Aux belt fail leading to it damaging/interfering with Cam belt. Essentially the same messy end though.

Personally I went with new engine route, I have a garage, tools and a reasonable technical knowlege (I am not however a qualified mechanic) so purchased a low mileage engine from a 172 that had recently had its belts done etc and fitted it straight in as a one piece, like-for-like swap.

When I was looking for one new engines can be had generally for £700 (please correct me guys if I am wrong) for reasonable mileage ones from cars being 'broken' for parts. I got a good deal on mine and just purchased the block/head of the engine without buying the ancillaries/inlets/manifolds/looms that I already had from my engine/car and that people generally sell with the engine for people looking to convert 1.2s into proper 2.0 reps etc so needing everything. I therefore spent less on the engine than that. I did spend a bit on top of that for new fluids, filters etc so performed a 'service' at the same time and any bits it was sensible to do at the same time.

For me it was the logical option but I was capable of the engine swap. Obviously if you take it to a garage you will be looking at the bill for labour, but may be able to have the head of your engine and any components that may have also been damaged repaired so the need to source new ones may not be needed. Just a few things for you to consider really.....

Good luck,
Rob

 

[Scml]

Cheers for that rob. I'll keeps my eyes out for a replacment engine.

 

[jack_kemp]

Replacement engine is almost certainly the best way to go... But it's worth checking your engine. Once in a while you'll get incredibly lucky and you'll get away without too much internal engine damage.

As said, depends how confident you are. But the fact that you didn't know it was cambelt, I'd guess you're not overly familiar with engines. Maybe best to take it somewhere and get them to have a look.