It's worth sorting them out.
A friend had been putting off a cam belt change in her Alfa.

I've been putting off the timing belt change for my car. (8+|

Mark

I was wondering this very morning what you're driving atm, Tim. Found another batmobile?

I had a Megane Coupe and the timing belt went. It wasn't pretty. Luckily I have a mechanic friend who sorted it for me cheap, had I needed to get it fixed at a Renault garage I would have been better buying a new engine or getting rid of the car.

New timing belt and water pump replaced - £320 and that's only a few months after a major service which turned into a £750+ bill. Whack tax and insurance on top of that and it's probably cheaper buying a banger at £500 with a years MOT

Al

I was reliably informed the Vauxhall/GM units fitted in the old Carltons simply stopped running in the event of the timing belt going. That meant you just had to have a new belt, set up the engine to run properly and away you went.

So, why is it, in the 21st century, designers still cook up internal combustion engines that will destroy themselves if the timing belt isn't changed in time? What on earth are they thinking?



Al, I think you have the right of it. £500 on an old banger and run it for a year until the MOT expires, then rinse and repeat.

GeekMobile v.2.0, Edd.
(8+)

Mark

No you weren't. The old Carltons all had the same in line engine as the Mantas and used a chain not a belt ! The Omega 2.0 16v, Vectra 2.0 16v has a belt but the 2.2 Vectra, VX220 and Astra 2.2 all have a chain also.

Some guy who was an AA man told me that Alfa Romeo were the worst cars for breaking cam belts, the AA keep statistics of every breakdown call out. Apparently Nissan are quite bad now for engine failures, but as they are essentially Renaults now, what would one expect !

Riiight, but did that mean it imploded? Or that chains never need changing?

Just want it clear in my noggin is all.

I hope it's not the cup you were telling me about?

As I said, I might have a spare engine, head rebuild's going to be a couple of grand, but would be a better option.

Chains do go, but it's very rare.

Alfa's big mistake was changing their famous four cylinder all alloy chain driven 8v engine for a cast iron fiat block. Then speccing poor tensioners, then saying they only need to be changed every five years. That's why the 16v four cylinders are known for going.

V6s are generally better, but ignore at your peril.

There's an engine here:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ALFA-ROMEO-166-3- ... 19b7a7c419

I'd personally get an engine replacement from these guys.

When we bought Horace he needed a new timing chain, the dead giveaway was the ticking noise that the engine made when started up cold, after a few minutes of warming up the ticking noise would go away and he ran like a dream. Chains may not go very often, but when they do it's spectacularly horrible Replacing it was a pain in the bum due to the engine alignment issues, but some nice person had marked the appropriate point at wich to line everything up with tipex so that helped. We both spilt blood and swore a lot, but it's all done now.

Current maintenance requirements on Horace are new suspension bushes, a new passenger side wheel bearing and rod end, eventually I'll need to replace the track bar as well since it's slightly bent, but the immediate issues have just been sorted by the lovely Adam at Stratford tyres, apparently the drivers side wheel bearing fell apart in his hands when he took it off so he replaced that and the rod end on that side.

Otherwise, it's all the usual classic car stuff, new window regulator on the drivers side, sort out the droopy headlining etc etc. Not for the first time, my Mister and I are wishing we had the room for a spares car each for our main cars, it would make things so much easier.

Tom, it's not that Cup I was telling you about, thankfully.
Her garage is quoting about £1500 to get the rebuild done.
I should point out that the service interval is (I think) 36,000 and her GTV was pushing 55,000 so it's not to do with 'typical' Alfa build, just a shocking lack of care which would probably have done the same to anything else.

Heather, a lot of Japanese engines are non-interference, which means that if you're cam belt does go, it's just a matter of the engine ceasing to go, rather than exploding.

Jaguar V8s are notorious for poorly specced chains/tensioners as well. One of the first things Dad did to the Sovereign was to swap the chains for the ones from the XJ8 and change the tensioners for the steel ones.