Timing Belt Snapping

[blueboy81]

had mine changed this week. car is over 12 years old and has 90000 on the clock. it said nothing in service history about cambelt so thought i better get it done. mechanic changed it for me and said the old one was really worn and on last legs.

cambelt kit and water pump cost £55, labour and antifreeze was £152.

[mactell]

Oh that's gonna be expensive and inconvenient.

[FordNewbies]

Had a call from the mechanic today. The car is nearly finished. Just changing the glow plugs now because they were apparently rotting and some seals.

I'll let you all know the damage to my pocket once he tots up the total cost later on today.

Also a list of everything changed with the scenario of how the timing belt snapped so everyone can be clued up about damage caused by stuff like this.

[D13 HPD 95]

id hate to see this bill m8

[FordNewbies]

Let's just say I'm dreading this phone call.

Me: so what's the damage Heuy

Mechanic: well I don't know yet until I tot up all the invoices.

Me: fair enough, but how is it looking

Mechanic: well... (At this point my heart sinks) it's not going to be crazy crazy but it's going to be crazy.

Me: god damn it!

[D13 HPD 95]

at least you still have humor :) nothings worth getting down about, !Removed! happens, i did love the god dam it haha like an old cartoon lol, but whats crazy crazy :S let us know how you get on, is insurance covering this??

[FordNewbies]

That was a conversation we had this morning lool.

I hope when he says "crazy crazy" he means anything above a grand

he has been fairly good to me in the past with my first car. i remember in my first car i had a collision with a low loader that tore through my whole left side smashed the door screen and tore of the side mirror. He managed to have it all repaired for about £700. which is pennies for the amount of damage that was done. includes buying a door, repairing the massive dents and repairing the holes plus the paint etc. if i had pictures i would have put them up to show you lot.

So something like this im hoping drops in the same region or thats more than half of my pay check gone for next month lool and also no mods for another month. which is out of the question.

[FordNewbies]

oh and no its not going through my insurance. im trying to gain no claims for what i want to buy next :P

[IrnnBruu]

I need mine doing soon, getting a little worried after reading this lol

Anyone know the best place to get a timing belt from? I have a fiesta mk6 1.4 zetec

Sent from my HTC One using Ford OC mobile app

[Jake90087]

I order parts through fordpartsuk. Genuine ford parts for a lower price.

[rockett]

Did the belt actually fully snap? Might of just jumped some teeth in which case it may not of bent any valves but would not start good luck

[D13 HPD 95]

oh and no its not going through my insurance. im trying to gain no claims for what i want to buy next :P

what you getting next year then ?? :D do tell!!

[FordNewbies]

what you getting next year then ?? :D do tell!!

Well if all goes well i hope to buy either a BMW M3 in matt black, or a Audi S5 then RS5 is a little out my league at the moment.

still want to keep the Fez though. She is my love child

[D13 HPD 95]

jaw drops at that comment :L haha how man? can i have your job ;)

[FordNewbies]

Ahh its all a good start. My normal 9 -5 infrastructure job couldnt pay for those cars no matter how much i saved and put away. It would take me about 5 years saving on average 10k a year. which would be a push with all my other commitments at the moment.

My job takes some education but mostly common sense.

But i have been trading on the Forex since the age of 18 (so about 2 and a bit years) and of recently also trading on the stocks and shares market, playing around with futures contracts etc. funnily enough ive traded the Ford Motor Company stock a few times (before during and after the launch news of the New ranges) nice little earner.

Trading takes intelligence and persistence. if you can conquer those two things then it will pay off one day and you can really start to live and enjoy nice things (IMO)

if i can get a respectable quote around the 3-5k mark then i will get one or the other. The insurance quote is the swinging factor on this plan.

[Gabbo_21]

I know with Mk6 fiesta's, focus's and cmax's which have had belts go in the 80's.

My best mates mini even went in the 80's (same engine block).

So when I put my old fiesta in for a belt change at 65 it kept getting questioned due to Fords service recommendations

[blueboy81]

for the sake of £200 its worth having it done

[D13 HPD 95]

how did it go ??

[ManxKat]

My timing belt went last year too. Luckily I had a bit of warning - it was making a weird noise when I got it in fact and the garage I bought it from didn't want to know, nothing wrong they said! But luckily hubby is a mechanic and changed it before I had an issue!!

But yep it was no where near miles or age recommended!

[Vendee]

Had a call from the mechanic today. The car is nearly finished. Just changing the glow plugs now because they were apparently rotting and some seals.

I'll let you all know the damage to my pocket once he tots up the total cost later on today.

Also a list of everything changed with the scenario of how the timing belt snapped so everyone can be clued up about damage caused by stuff like this.

So........................................................?

[mockneyferguson]

In reference to ford covering the cost there is no chance ford warranty states till the end of 3rd year or 60000 miles therefore its scheduled maintenance. Iv seen similar happen and its gone to court your never beat them. Plus usually the tensioner/idler lets go then knackers the belt. No service life on a tensioner

[mockneyferguson]

In reference to ford covering the cost there is no chance ford warranty states till the end of 3rd year or 60000 miles therefore its scheduled maintenance. Iv seen similar happen and its gone to court your never beat them. Plus usually the tensioner/idler lets go then knackers the belt. No service life on a tensioner

[Vendee]

Would have been nice to hear from the OP regarding what the damage was, both mechanically and monetary.

[FordNewbies]

Hello All,

First of all I want to apologise for neglecting this posts for so many months, but you will see why this was all in due time.

I will try to squish the past four months into a story as short as possible.

First of all let me start by correcting some information that I provided you all in the beginning. The timing belt did not snap at all, in fact it slid.

Well this is where the story starts to get interesting.

This is a list of things I had to get replaced at my first Mechanics:

1. All 16 valves £107.57

2. 1 piston

3. Head had to be skimmed

4. Timing belt kit £133.84

5. 1 engine relay (Fuse box Relay)

6. oil filter £12.96

7. Seals x2 £9.98

8. Gaskets £15.02

9. Glow Plugs £98.73

10. Exshaust Valves £107.57

11. Glow plug relay £54.22

12. Cam shaft driver £46.14

13. Anti Freeze £5

14. Fuse box wiring loom

(There was some other small stuff he had to do)

Right so let me explain how the last bit came about. Turns out that the

glow plug relay completely shorted and burnt itself out in the literal sense. It had melted. Now to this day no one can explain to me how this came about.

It is a very costly part that set me back £483.79 directly from Fords. Now here is some advice for everyone that might not know this already. The Ford Fiesta MK7 Zetec S TDCI 95 comes with two engine wiring looms, which not even a large fords part reseller didn’t know. I needed the fuse box wiring loom that runs all the way into the drivers’ dashboard. Instead I was sent the other loom. Due to this being a part that’s not kept in stock in the UK because "It is not a part that fails ever" I had to wait 5 days for it to come from all the way from the Fords factory in Germany, but because the mechanics was ill advised and the reseller didn’t know there was two looms I had to wait 10 days

for the loom I actually needed to arrive in total. (Bearing in mind it took my mechanic two months to get to this conclusion.)

After my mechanic had fixed all he needed to fix he went to start the

car. It hard started because it was dead for 3 months ( or so I first thought) The car hard started, and then just completely died. My mechanic started to say it could be the ECU or the Immobiliser. My ECU was sent off for testing twice. On both occasions the car was sent back due to the "specialists companies" not being able to read the device. upon my own investigation I found out the generation of ECU in my car has a new Bosch Tri core lock system. To sum it up, the device is designed to only be opened by Fords and Bosch trained specialists that have the

equipment to do so. (I will edit this text to show the exact model in due

time.) Then my mechanic was saying he couldn’t read the ECU through the

diagnostics port due to him not being able to start the car blah blah

blah.

So I got very annoyed and asked him if he knew what he was doing or

not!!!! Also if the car had beaten him to just take the damn thing to Fords and accept the loss. My step dad went down there twice to make him admit that he had accepted defeat. he eventually did arranged for the car to be taken to Fords.

Right now this is where a twist in the story comes up.

He booked my car in as a "non-starter". My mechanics had not

provided them with any information what so ever as to what he changed and found etc!

Fords would not start any serious work on the car unless I came down and signed off on the expenses. It turns out Fords do not like to work with third party mechanics due to past issues with them. So they have a new policy which dictates that they will only contact the owner of the car directly and will not pass on any information to the mechanic directly.

So when I went to down to Fords to sign off on them doing an advanced

check on my car. The initial checks didn’t bring up anything concrete only page upon page of errors (I do not exaggerate on bit.), sensors etc. The advanced check costs £285.

Once the advanced checks had been completed Fords had Informed me that the Camshaft has bent in a really bad way. Which was new to me, because when my car was stripped by my first mechanic, he was adament the cam was fine and wasnt bent etc. Which he then repeated to me on numerous occasions. I told Fords I will have to call them back while I confirm this with my mechanic (im no mechanic so everything they were saying to me just sounded like complete science lool) My mechanic said it cant be the cam blah blah blah becuase it was fine blah blah blah, Fords are crooks blah blah blah. This really put me inbetween a rock and a hard place. I kind of had no option but to give Fords the go ahead to do what they said had to be done.

Fords changed:

The photo above shows you all the costs I had to pay.

Then suddenly it dawned on me... I thought the camshaft was fine when it got to my mechanics! So I asked fords to show me the cam. Which they did. It was bent so badly that it wasn't something that could just be overlooked when stripping the engine. Which to me meant it bent when it was at my mechanics. Now me being a person that doesn't like to assume things at all. I asked Fords loads of questions about what could cause this etc and if it was bent this badly would there be any chance of the car starting if not hard starting then completely dying. My account manager said "not on your nilly mate".

So yesterday I went back to my mechanics to sort out his bill. Which came to a total of £2129.94

I asked him questions about the camshaft bending to come to my final conclusion. I didn't going to his shop accusing them of doing all the damage. That would have been wrong not to mention cause a situation. All the questions I asked led both me and my mechanic to silently acknowledge that the damage must have been done at his shop when they fitted it back together and started it. This is a quote from my account manager at Fords that is still ringing in my ears "your small local mechanics will struggle with newer cars due to them not having the education about the mechanics of them. New cars are in essence computers. Long gone are the days that it was all mechanical parts in the engine bay. You have to follow the Fords Manual for everything down to taking the ECU. You have to be very precise with the way you put things back in or you will get serious issues" now that was very true in this situation.

My mechanics came to this warped conclusion that he should only have to pay the labour charges on my car being at Fords and not the parts cost due to them "going on my car and not his" which I just laughed at because all the parts that were replaced were in direct contact and damages by the cam twisting. In the end he had to admit defeat. I also added in that I haven't had my car for nearly 4months due to him messing me about. When I told Fords how long he had it they said it was practically criminal!

So he had to minus my Fords bill from his bill (2129.94-1293.49= 839.45)

You can see why he was so hesitant to accept blame for it. £839.45 didn't even cover his parts cost, which was £1235.34

To draw this long awaited update to a close, I would just like to share something that I've learnt through this situations with everyone on here.

Firstly: If you have a new car, think about the initial the costs you will bare.

Secondly: Always bring your car back to the dealer if you have electrical or major issues like I have had. It is honestly the best secure place for it to be. I learnt that the hard way. It may cost you "more" but you will never go wrong. You are better covered with them in my opinion.

Thirdly: Look after your vehicles with services, it is in your best interest.

I bought my car in November, with a full Fords service history the car was serviced every 3months by the business that previously owned it. The first I did was book it in for a full service with my mechanic. The belt was booked in for a change two days after it slid on me which is just my luck lool. The ford recommended change interval is 125,000 miles. Which may or may not be right. I suggest you do it once you hit around 90k in the lovely fiestas.

I had my car recovered from Newcastle straight to my mechanics in London (thank the sweet baby Jesus I was covered with Greenflag nationally) because I knew no different. He has always been my mechanic that fixed every issue I brought to him with my first car ( 2007 fiat grande punto 1.4 dynamic sport). So I thought he could do the job of just repairing the belt damage. Turns out more that just that broke. He should have accepted that he couldn't fix all the issues because he didn't have the knowledge, but instead due to pride who couldn't admit he couldn't and take it to Fords.

This is my horrid experience over the last 4months. I hope with me sharing all this with you all in detail it will help and educate in some way.

Let me know if you feel I have missed anything or if you want to ask me any questions.

Regards

Omar aka FordNewbies

Sent from my iPhone using Ford OCk

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[GrumpyTrucker]

:( That's a very sad tale Omar. I hope you at least have a working car again. No wonder you've been slow updating this thread.

I think I'd have been tempted not to pay the first garage anything, although I guess then he'd have argued he's not paying your Ford bill and small claims court would have been looming. The bit that concerns me a little though is the line on the Ford bill from the report "May still have further damage". Did they go into what they think that might be?

Seems a shame that such a long relationship with a garage who has served you well over the years has probably come to an end like this too. I've always avoided main dealers for services etc until I got my first new car in 2012. Then I decided to bite the bullet and go there for peace of mind. Surprisingly the Ford service was a very similar price to what my backstreet garage has been charging lately, so either main dealers are getting cheaper or backstreet guys are getting dearer.

Happy driving :)