Citroen C3 - Timing belt degradation

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Sat 2 Apr 2022 10:25
Citroen C3 - Timing belt degradation - Emma Pritchard
Hi I hope someone might be able to help with some general advice or thoughts-my citron C3 the garage tells me that there is timing belt degradation - unfortunately I was not able to speak to the mechanic about this issue only receptionist who couldn’t tell me much. Obviously I understand if the timing belt had broken that will cause great damage but in terms of a timing belt degradation what damage could possibly be caused to my engine ? The car was running fine, no typical signs of a timing belt issue until the red warning light came on and requested I turn the engine off. Hoping someone on this forum can help a complete and utter car novice understand the scope of the issue- thank you in advance
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Sat 2 Apr 2022 10:41
Citroen C3 - Timing belt degradation - daveyjp

Degradation leads to failure.

The obvious decision to make is to change it, but that also depends on age and mileage and general condition of the vehicle.

Edited by daveyjp on 02/04/2022 at 10:42

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Sat 2 Apr 2022 12:24
Citroen C3 - Timing belt degradation - elekie&a/c doctor
I guess this has the Citroen/Peugeot pure tech engine . This has what is known as a wet timing belt that runs in the engine oil . (Similar to Ford ecoboost engine) . Unfortunately the belt can delaminate and cause the belt fibres to get into the oil ways and cause engine failure. This needs to be investigated as to whether any damage has been done .
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Sun 3 Apr 2022 21:03
Citroen C3 - Timing belt degradation - Emma Pritchard
Thank you - I’m beginning to understand what degradation means - the car is L reg under 60 thousand miles
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Sat 2 Apr 2022 15:20
Citroen C3 - Timing belt degradation - Andrew-T

I'm a bit suspicious about this. I don't know about engines with wet belts, but with dry ones it is not easy to detect 'degradation' before a belt fails. Maybe they are quietly suggesting that you fork out for a new belt before anything dire happens ? And while it can be easy to take a look at a dry belt, is that simple with a wet one ? If not, I am wondering what they have actually examined.

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Sat 2 Apr 2022 15:48
Citroen C3 - Timing belt degradation - elekie&a/c doctor
Nothing to be suspicious about . There’s a special tool that measures the width of the belt to determine wear . More info here : www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=160&t=...6
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Sat 2 Apr 2022 16:42
Citroen C3 - Timing belt degradation - Andrew-T
Nothing to be suspicious about . There’s a special tool that measures the width of the belt to determine wear .

It's worrying that wear is a problem serious enough to need a special tool to measure it ....

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Sat 2 Apr 2022 17:53
Citroen C3 - Timing belt degradation - sammy1

As far as I am aware the belt should be examined at 60k miles for signs of wear/fraying. It is a £500 job to change it and there is a complete kit, What I cannot understand about this post is that the RED light came on with not to drive. Maybe the OP could give us more info. Did the belt indeed fail? If iit did break up then the sump should come off and bottom of the engine thoroughly cleaned assuming of cause the engine is undamaged.

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Sat 2 Apr 2022 18:13
Citroen C3 - Timing belt degradation - John F

PSA's 1.2 puretech engines had a huge problem with unsatisfactory belts before 2017 which did indeed degrade, producing granular debris which caused problems, sometimes by only around 20-30,000 miles or so. If yours is of this vintage, get it checked. Might be worth having a look at this thread......

www.peugeotforums.com/threads/timing-belt-crumbles.../

......and printing off some choice extracts to show your mechanic if he tries to fob you off.

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Sun 3 Apr 2022 20:59
Citroen C3 - Timing belt degradation - Emma Pritchard
This really helped thank you -my car is L reg and under 60 thousand Miles (MOT / services every year by the dealer )

Edited by Emma Pritchard on 03/04/2022 at 21:01

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Sun 3 Apr 2022 21:07
Citroen C3 - Timing belt degradation - _
This really helped thank you -my car is L reg and under 60 thousand Miles (MOT / services every year by the dealer )

L reg makes it 1993... For a Citroen C3

???????

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Sun 3 Apr 2022 22:23
Citroen C3 - Timing belt degradation - sammy1

C3 came out in 2002 with a 1.4 and 1.6 engine and a diesel. Would Not be the Puretech engine discussed. This is the danger of getting poor info.

So we need the year and specific engine size so coupled with the RED light and age does not sound good..

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Sun 3 Apr 2022 23:26
Citroen C3 - Timing belt degradation - Andrew-T
This really helped thank you -my car is L reg and under 60 thousand Miles (MOT / services every year by the dealer )

'L-reg' perhaps means it was registered in the London area ? The year is shown by the two digits in positions 3 & 4, maybe with 50 added . Let us know.

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Mon 4 Apr 2022 19:57
Citroen C3 - Timing belt degradation - Emma Pritchard
Sorry it’s 2017 car
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Tue 2 Apr 2024 09:29
Citroen C3 - Timing belt degradation - Vinnie T

This is my experience of the wet belt. This time on a 2016 C3 Picasso Edition. It's a 1.2 triple engine. One morning I started the engine and got the red STOP light. The error reported was low oil pressure. It was towed to my garage who diagnosed a degraded timing belt with associated clogging of the oil pump strainer. Luckily I only needed a new belt and not a new oil pump. Cost of repair was just over £800. Once repaired the engine was a lot quieter and I have had no further issues. This belt was just over 41,000 miles old on a car that was nearly seven and a half years old. The garage told me that he as had to replace wet belts with mileages as low as 20,000 miles. Having read that there was a quality issue on pre 2017 cars I can only hope that I have had a higher quality belt fitted. Having only had the work done about 1000 miles ago, I am very tempted to quietly trade the car in and get a car with a dry belt or timing chain.

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Tue 2 Apr 2024 11:32
Citroen C3 - Timing belt degradation - John F

Luckily I only needed a new belt and not a new oil pump.

I presume they also dropped the sump and cleaned the strainer etc.

I can only hope that I have had a higher quality belt fitted.

Almost certainly so.

I am very tempted to quietly trade the car in and get a car with a dry belt or timing chain.

That would be expensive. I'd stick with it, but I'd change the oil and quality filter myself at least every 10k miles, or be absolutely sure that the correct spec oil is used. A jugful of cheapo generic 0-30 out of the garage's stock oil barrel just won't do.

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