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i have a renault megan 1.6 16 v on a 03 plate and the cam belt has snapped. It went at low speed. Please can you give me an idea on the amount of damage this would cause and if possible a ball park figure i can expect to pay. Many thanks rich
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 02/12/2008 at 21:22
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Rich,
Depending on the area that you live in, and therefre the local labour rate, here in London I would give a figure of around £1,000.
I guess by you comment about it happening at low speed you are hoping that it may not have done too much damage. Unfortunatly, the valves are not very stong, so will bend quite easily. Also, if the car is manual, the whole weight of the car would have been turning the engine over once the belt failed.
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Two snapped renault cambelts on the same day/page today. How many miles had they done? Why did the snap? Has Renault got a problem with the design or manufacture of cambelts? I never read about Ford cambelts snapping, and virtually never on non-turbo petrol engines. I shall continue to leave mine alone.
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Failed belts on these engines is not unusual. Its quite a narrow belt and the poor 'design' of the belt driven waterpump leads to bearing failure and consequential throwing of the belt. Last one i did on a 16v rolled in at about £1500 using genuine parts. Not seen a broken belt on a regularly maintained Zetec but still err on the side of caution and change them a little earlier than the recommended 100k, Those that I have changed, the guide and tensioner rollers were definitely on ther last legs.
I shall continue to leave mine alone.>>
Still running a VW John F?
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This is a 5yr old car with unknown mileage. A little premature to be discussing inherent belt problems. The last failed Renault cambelt on that I saw on here had gone over 10,000 miles past its change interval.
Cambelt driven waterpumps are commonplace across many brands including such shoddily engineered cars as VW/Audi, Porsche and Volvo.
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The poor design I alluded to was purely from an engineering point of view whereby the relative width of the bearing vs the overhang of the shaft carrying the belt sprocket lends itself to premature failure.
Remember its not normally the belt that fails, usually an outside influence that causes the problem, like the pump failing, or the guide rollers on Vauxhalls etc etc.
You are quite correct in your statement regarding other marques using belt driven pumps but their engineering practise seems better.
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Still running a VW John F?
No - traded in for a pittance at 242,000 miles - original belt still intact. Now have Focus - carefully driven auto, a mere 58,000 and 8yrs old - I will report any breakage.
Also have a 98 A6 2.8, 99,000 - well past 80,000 recommended change time. I inspected it this summer - it looks as good as new. All it has to do is to drive a couple of tiny camshafts yet it looks almost as sturdy as a BMW motorcycle drive belt. I am going to see if it outlasts me. [another 25yrs driving at around 4,000 per annum - hopefully ;-) ]
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