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Technical Timing Belt has Slipped Casing on 150 MJ- Fatal?

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Technical Timing Belt has Slipped Casing on 150 MJ- Fatal?

doolahrock

doolahrock

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Oct 28, 2004
Messages
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Location
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Hi Folks

On the way back from my wifes work the car cut out. The timing belt has come free of the casing. The car will be going into the garage but just wondering what we can expect? It's done 45k

I know timing belt issues can be catastrophic so just putting the feelers out.

Cheers

Jon
 
Bad news :(

However, I think that a belt failure on the diesels isnt as catastrophic as on a petrol, the valves shouldnt meet the pistons. There are rockers? or similar that break but that saves the valves etc.. (forgive the vaigness but it is something like that!)
 
yes the rockers should break and save the engine.
But whoever does the work needs to find all the parts of the failed rockers, which may involve removing the sump.
You must MUST get them to check the water pump because that is the usual reason for cambelt failure on the 16v/20v Diesels and should be replaced.
 
David C said:
yes the rockers should break and save the engine.
But whoever does the work needs to find all the parts of the failed rockers, which may involve removing the sump.
You must MUST get them to check the water pump because that is the usual reason for cambelt failure on the 16v/20v Diesels and should be replaced.
Click to expand...

Surely the rockers would only break if they are trying to open the valves, and the valves aint going anywhere because the pistons are in the way?
 
neilshep said:
Surely the rockers would only break if they are trying to open the valves, and the valves aint going anywhere because the pistons are in the way?
Click to expand...

ok, I'll try this slowly..... ;)

Engine running
Cambelt fails
Crank still turning, pistons still going up/down, BUT camshafts & valves are now stationary including the open ones which get hit by the pistons snapping the rockers.

If the rockers didn't snap then it would be bent valves & damaged pistons.
 
Till you open it up you won't really know. Some people get lucky :) others don't :(
 
David C said:
ok, I'll try this slowly..... ;)

Engine running
Cambelt fails
Crank still turning, pistons still going up/down, BUT camshafts & valves are now stationary including the open ones which get hit by the pistons snapping the rockers.

If the rockers didn't snap then it would be bent valves & damaged pistons.
Click to expand...

I had the cambelt tensioner on a Rover 800 drop off because the bolts holding it to the block failed. Consequently all 16 valves got intimately acquainted with the pistons:mad: Fortunately Rover coughed up for that.
 
How old is the car? I think whether this is fatal or not is more down to luck than anything but if it's younger than the suggested cambelt change interval it might be worth seeing if Fiat will help towards the repair cost, particularly as it's below the mileage point for a change. With a Fiat and an Abarth in the family they ought to be pretty helpful to you.

I'd also repeat what's been said about checking the waterpump - this is what's caused the death of many an Alfa 147 150bhp Multijet & the same fate seems to be meeting a few 150bhp Multijet Bravo's in the last couple of months too.

If yours is down to the waterpump i think it's fair to say people need to seriously consider cambelt/waterpump change at 40,000 miles on the Multijet 150, as is the case on the Alfa 147 JTDm.
 
JTD_Liam said:
How old is the car? I think whether this is fatal or not is more down to luck than anything but if it's younger than the suggested cambelt change interval it might be worth seeing if Fiat will help towards the repair cost, particularly as it's below the mileage point for a change. With a Fiat and an Abarth in the family they ought to be pretty helpful to you.
Click to expand...

I'm hoping that might be the case. To date my I've had a Punto, Stilo, Panda, Barchetta, Bravo and the Abarth. All but one were bought at a FIAT dealership so I've spent around 46k with FIAT over the years. I would like to think that there might be a little goodwill to be dished out :)

I'll make sure the water pump is replaced whilst any other work is going on. Should find out the extent of the damage today. My wife didn't hear any obvious mechanical mash up when the car cut out so here's hoping.
 
doolahrock said:
I'm hoping that might be the case. To date my I've had a Punto, Stilo, Panda, Barchetta, Bravo and the Abarth. All but one were bought at a FIAT dealership so I've spent around 46k with FIAT over the years. I would like to think that there might be a little goodwill to be dished out :)

I'll make sure the water pump is replaced whilst any other work is going on. Should find out the extent of the damage today. My wife didn't hear any obvious mechanical mash up when the car cut out so here's hoping.
Click to expand...

With £46k spent with them i'd hope they might be able to stretch to a few hundred to help, yes :p

Fiat UK offered £300 in vouchers to me, which covered the cost to replace the front suspension springs & one tyre when a spring snapped & went into the tyre at 6 years old, without any great deal of pressure. It might be because if the spring had snapped like it did when i was driving i'd have probably ended up in a pretty bad way, if not dead, but even so i wasn't expecting them to be as decent as they were, given i bought the car 2nd hand & it was 3 years out of warranty at the time of the incident.

Whilst i'm loyal, this was only my 3rd Fiat, although the Parents have since bought a brand new 500 as a result of Fiat's good customer service with me & i'm 95% sure i'll be having a Fiat or an Alfa next. If they'd not helped i'd have probably looked more keenly at moving to one of my other makes of choice like Renault, Citroen or Volvo.

Not sure if there is usually any tell-tale noise if anything in the engine hits something it shouldn't, but if there wasn't any noise i suppose that can only be a good thing. Good luck anyway. I'm guessing your Bravo is at a Fiat Main Dealer so they might be doing the leg work but if they don't get anywhere with Fiat, i contacted [email protected] directly and they were excellent. It'd certainly be worth mentioning how many Fiat Group vehicles you've owned in any email you send.

Liam
 
Unfortunately the car is not with FIAT. It's far from convenient to get to the Edinburgh branch and I have a great local guy who has done most of my servicing and repairs in the past. It'll probably mean that FIAT might not be as inclined to offer any compensation as I didn't take it to them. I'm afraid to say that the Edinburgh dealership have been pretty poor in the past so I just don't have any faith in them (my FIAT loyalty bewilders even me sometimes).

As an update to the problem, it was indeed the water pump that failed I have been told today. They have still to have a proper investigation of the engine damage but I should know more tomorrow.
 
Totally forgot to update this thread. I took the car to my local mechanic as AC in Edinburgh have screwed up so many times in the past.

Timing belt kit, 16 rockers, water pump, labour and an engine service came to £792 so not too terrible. Will be contacting FIAT to see if they have anything to say on the matter.
 
doolahrock said:
Totally forgot to update this thread. I took the car to my local mechanic as AC in Edinburgh have screwed up so many times in the past.

Timing belt kit, 16 rockers, water pump, labour and an engine service came to £792 so not too terrible. Will be contacting FIAT to see if they have anything to say on the matter.
Click to expand...

Thats not too bad mate, I recently paid £320 for the belt, tensioners and water pump change on my 150 MJET. That was at a very respected independent Alfa garage thats been in the game for 25yrs. I asked him about if Fiat/Alfa cover belt failure, blunt reply was NO. Said the Italian Car manufacturers are very hard to get a penny out of, unlike Ford, Peugeout and some of the others who have been known to replace engines due to belt failure. Actually happened to a mate of mine in a Mondeo about 10 years back.
But as some have said, you might get lucky, just seems there is no set procedure for them to stick to.

Also said he would always advise MJET belts to be changed no later than 40K/4 years, after that your playing with luck.
 
doolahrock said:
Totally forgot to update this thread. I took the car to my local mechanic as AC in Edinburgh have screwed up so many times in the past.

Timing belt kit, 16 rockers, water pump, labour and an engine service came to £792 so not too terrible. Will be contacting FIAT to see if they have anything to say on the matter.
Click to expand...

Any dealer servicing at all?
 
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