Broken Timing Belt

Question,

What are the chances of a timing belt with minimal signs of wear breaking into 2 pieces with no ribs missing?

How old is the belt?
What brand belt?
Anything seized in belts path i.e. Water pump , roller , tentioner.?

If you can't answer all the above questions, you need to do the belt asap!

Go look at the lightbulb in your kitchen and tell me when it is going to burn out.

It's like driving without brakes and saying I haven't hit anything yet.

The thread title suggests you just experienced a TB failure and it broke into 2 pieces and no ribs were missing. If a TB failure actually happened then the head has to come off for a rebuild.

Some people think they got lucky after a TB failure by just replacing the TB and the engine starts and appears to run perfectly fine again. All seems OK until it drops a valve about 2k miles later and totally destroys the engine. The valves get weakened when the get hit and they get made shorter instead of bent. A smacked valve later breaks from the stem at the base of the stem where it was weakened. Bottom line is whenever there has been valve and piston contact, the head HAS to come off for a rebuild.

Good luck.

HouseDoc1 said:

Question,

What are the chances of a timing belt with minimal signs of wear breaking into 2 pieces with no ribs missing?

Click to expand...

pretty good if it's a rothenbacher/hans belt ... sounds like you've already had an uh oh moment... time to pull the head

csstevej said:

How old is the belt?
What brand belt?
Anything seized in belts path i.e. Water pump , roller , tentioner.?

Click to expand...

Where did the belt come from? How many miles on the belt? Are the belly pan and side shields in place?

I know the head has to come off as it is an interference motor, the reason for my question was to help determine what failed with the limited information at this point, engine is not seized, all rollers turn, water pump turns, injection pump pulley turns, cam pulley locked up. I was told that its usually some ribs on the belt that break off rather than the belt snapping in half with no ribs broken off? belt was about 2 years old with 30k tops on it, head is Chinese and was suspect initially but now so is the belt, not sure of the make on the belt? The car ran better than ever prior to this failure primarily due to the new injection pump, I was ready to blame all on the head but now i'm leaning towards the belt but won't know until I pull the valve cover, and the total damage after pulling the head. Belly pan and all shields in place 370k on car, less than 50k on head.

Does this have something to do with this?

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=475563

or this:

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=474933

Cam Pulley locked up? Sounds like piston and valve have had a meeting.

The cam pulley is supposed to be locked up (to the cam)

A snap in half belt is usually a rothenbacher belt. They're like toys or certain harbor freight tools. It may look like a timing belt, but...

belome said:

or this:

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=474933

Click to expand...

Those are some pretty sweet links.

Deja Vu?

eddieleephd said:

If you can't answer all the above questions, you need to do the belt asap!

Click to expand...

True, but too funny. He is already there for a rebuilt head and timing system replacement.

But ya I get your drift. If you don't know the age/condition of any part of the timing system, you need to replace everything.

UhOh said:

Deja Vu?

Click to expand...

Yup. We have already been there, many times.................

Wow!

This "incident" has been hashed and rehashed in at least two other Threads in one form or another!

Look at Belome's two links ....

AndyBees said:

Wow!

This "incident" has been hashed and rehashed in at least two other Threads in one form or another!

Look at Belome's two links ....

Click to expand...

After looking at the responses from belome I say there's something more to it.

Tensioner came loose a few times and if it were me, I would consider a new engine with new timing job.

Sounds like the tensioner bolt hole is stripped too.

^^^ Good call!