I have a 2009 Mondeo and the cam belt has gone. The Ford dealership has quoted costs of £700+ to take the engine apart and assess the damage and a worst case scenario of needing to replace the engine which will run to several thousand pounds. Any advice would be appreciated.

Ford is always going to be the most expensive .Worth ringing around to some good independents. :)

If your cam belt snapped when the engine was running you may have 1 (or several) bent valves, + possible piston, small end, rod and/or crank damage, any swarf/ bits can block oilways and/ or cause collateral damage

in one case an engine was re-built at great expense, the engine ran like a bag of spanners and was taken apart again, it turned out one of the rods was bent but that was not noticed the 1st time (i can't remember if that was at a Ford main dealer)

Sometimes the best, most cost effective thing is to just replace the engine, a decent, second-hand engine may be cheaper and better than repairing the old one, the labour cost(s) may be cheaper doing an engine transplant than stripping/ rebuilding the old one and the car may be off the road a shorter time-

Its a sobering thought, but on an much older car (than yours) that is not worth very much money, when something like this happens the car may be uneconomic to repair and is written off/ scrapped, it depends how much the repair(s) cost and how much the car is worth - these things should be "weighed up" before spending more than the car is worth repairing it - age, condition, milage etc ll come into it -

the £700 is just to take the old engine apart to see what is wrong, that could go towards a decent, secondhand engine and be fitted by an independant mechanic/ garage (as suggested)

What type of fuel (petrol/ diesel) and what is the capacity (CCs) and type of engine? - "2009" and Mondeo is not enough information - all i know is its a mk4 with nothing else to go on

Hi Susanne,

If the cam belt has gone then you will be looking at a replacement engine at least! I would suggest you need to get in touch with some indies, see if you can get a mobile mechanic. the cheapest option is for them to diagnose it but I suspect your going to need to get a replacement engine, a rebuild is going to cost you over £1500 alone, but you can get a replacement engine for that if not cheaper and have it fittted for less than ford would.