Hello All,

Just thought i would share this experience with you lads and ladies.

Yeserday I had my timing belt snap on me. I have a 2010 Ford Fiesta Zetec S 1.6 TDCI at 97000.

I just want to warn people that the 125,000 miles/ 10yrs that ford suggest might just be at a stretch. I suggest get it done much earlier to avoid what i'm about to go through lol.

when i bought the car it put it through a full service and because of the manufacturers recommended time and milage suggested frame the belt was left alone. i ran the service at 94000.

according to my mechanic i might have to replace all 16 valves.

he is first going to order the timing belt change kit from ford then do a compression test. if it passes then happy days if not then the head will have to come off and valves replaced.

lets just say this isn't going to be cheap at all.

Just giving you all a warm warning....

Regards

ouch :/ doesnt sound too good, how did it snap just wear?

hope its all alright

I believe so.

I just had a sudden power loss. Moved it over to the hard shoulder and the bugger wouldnt start again. as soon as the call out guy said it could be the timing belt, i felt my heart sink.

Lucky i had national recovery with greenflag or it would have cost me £1600 to recover my car from where i was on the motor way about 16miles outside of newcastle upon tyne to the hotel me and my boys were staying in. then from the hotel back to London the following day.

Ouch, fingers crossed for you mate keep us updated with how you get on!

i would remove the head and check the valves before putting a new belt on.

Hello,

The whole point in the mechanic buying the new timing belt kit and doing A compression test is to avoid having to do this process unnecessarily. this is all in a bid to reduce the potential labour cost involved with remove the head.

if the engine passes the compression test then all valves are fine. if its fails then its time to strip the engine down. where as if you did it the other way round you would pick up potential unnecessary costs if you see what i mean

Regards

Ouch,,,, should never take any notice of 'recommended' interval times. Ford say 150k on some cars, but others say you should halve that and get it done at 75k or sooner. For the price of a belt kit, and what fitting would cost, compared to what you are about to face is a no brainer. Fingers crossed it's not to bad for you.

I bought my car with 49k miles about 4 months ago, and changed the belt and pulleys etc on the second day of ownership, just for my own peace of mind.

lets just say this is a life lesson im glad i learnt now. Its a shame i didn't learn this lesson on my first car which was a Fiat Grande Punto and not on my beautiful Fiesta ZS.

I have a very good mechanic who is optimistic about the damage. i wont know until monday the full extent of all the damage. its highly unlikely there would be none, judging by the speed it snapped at.

by the way does anyone know if its a non-interface engine or an interface engine on the 2010 Fiesta ZS?

My personal expression is you should get it done at about 3/4 of the recommended interval. This belt is so much more than just "to turn something" because it controls so much its not worth the risk of leaving it that long. Its a few hundred quid to replace, but if its that, or a lot more to replace valves at best, or engines at worst, its not worth the risk!

I changed mine on on my previous mk1.5 2.0 esp at 57k & when I sold it still only had 79k

Sent from my HTC Sensation XE with Beats Audio Z715e using Ford OC mobile app

Hello,

The whole point in the mechanic buying the new timing belt kit and doing A compression test is to avoid having to do this process unnecessarily. this is all in a bid to reduce the potential labour cost involved with remove the head.

if the engine passes the compression test then all valves are fine. if its fails then its time to strip the engine down. where as if you did it the other way round you would pick up potential unnecessary costs if you see what i mean

Regards

Its an interference engine. There will be damaged valves. Sorry to sound so blunt but you can't have the crankshaft and the camshaft rotating independently on an interference engine without damaging some valves so the head will have to come off and fitting a new belt and doing a compression test will be wasted work. I'm not being arsey.... just telling it how it is. Good luck.

Being honest with you all I'm expecting something to be damaged or broken. I'm expecting at least 8 valves to be broken due to what ever point in the cycle the engine was... I'm expecting to payout huge on this one!

Being honest with you all I'm expecting something to be damaged or broken. I'm expecting at least 8 valves to be broken due to what ever point in the cycle the engine was... I'm expecting to payout huge on this one!

Its sometimes cheaper to try and get a complete head from an accident damaged vehicle. Its not just the valves themselves. The valve guides can sometimes crack.

I'm definitely going to see how far gone my mechanic says it is. Then from there see what he advices. He hasn't failed me yet and that was one of his initial suggestions. I'll find out by the end of working day Monday.

Hello,

The whole point in the mechanic buying the new timing belt kit and doing A compression test is to avoid having to do this process unnecessarily. this is all in a bid to reduce the potential labour cost involved with remove the head.

if the engine passes the compression test then all valves are fine. if its fails then its time to strip the engine down. where as if you did it the other way round you would pick up potential unnecessary costs if you see what i mean

Regards

Your mechanic should be taking the head off first to inspect for damage before even contemplating fitting a new belt kit.

I understand you for being cautious on labour costs, but if the head is knackered after a new belt is fitted then you'll have to pay for that to be replaced anyway.

As has been mentioned above, there WILL be valve damage at the very minimum, hopefully that's all it will be.

Best of luck and let us know how you get on.

just putting a new belt on to see if anything in the head is damaged is madness and could cause even more damage than there allready is.

With it being only a 2010 and under its mileage change could you not take the matter up with ford see if the will do anything towards the repair costs?

I sometimes get a strange whining noise from the belt not all the time only sometimes i can only hear it when the car is on and i'm outside. Could this be a sign my belt is on its way out? mine has 62000 miles on it

I'm pretty sure fitting a new belt kit and manually cranking the engine won't cause more damage than that of which already existed.

Wouldn't the mechanic have to do a compression test to see which valves have blown? I'm no mechanic so I wouldn't have the foggiest clue.

@chinny. Timing belt is classed as general wear and tear so even your new buyers warrantee would cover things like that.

@K-Singh. If your hearing noise from that region, i would suggest you get it seen to by your local. Better to be safe than sorry bro.

FordNewbies, you are not correct. Don't forget, when the belt snapped, the top end stopped fairly quickly and the bottom end carried on until the car came to a halt (or was declutched). The valves will have been bent and if you fit a new belt and turn the engine, you are moving the bent valve stems in and out of the valve guides, risking damaging them. Its rare but not unknown for the valve followers or even the camshaft to snap. You don't want to be driving that valve train again before you know everything is fine.

You talk about manually cranking the engine but to do a compression test, you have to spin it on the starter motor.

As for timing belt being a wear item. Ford have been know to pay some or all of bill if belt fails under recommended interval and the owner can show a full service history.

Thank you for the insight, it's appreciated. At least I know where I stand on this matter.

I can prove a full ford service history in the car so this might be something I could bring to them and let you all know what's been said.

I'll chase that up on Monday.

Is the standard Ford warranty 3yrs and unlimited mileage? I thought it was 60K miles?

The 3 years warranty is BS, interior is 1yr, leaks (raining in) is not 3 years. Sure if it started to rust there'd be a get-out-clause for them etc etc.

I have a 1.6TDCI 4 years and 63K miles and starting to get worried, one of the reasons for going with Ford was the thought that I'd never have to pay to change the rubber band.

woha??

I asked my ford dealer when i bought my car about the TB interval.

They said it was a timing-chain not belt on this, and it is rated as lifetime (10years/200.000 km)

Mine has now done 95.000 km.

Its the 1.6tdci engine in a 2009 model.

They possible changed this on my model, but its definitely a belt on my car

Timing belts are really a 'your mileage may vary' type of part. Some people will have one snap way below the interval (My aunt's mk 4 golf snapped 2 in 10 years) and some will ignore it and it will last twice the recommended interval. Oil on the belt will really shorten its lifespan as will lots of trips in the cold and short journeys.