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So I had fun on Sunday afternoon, Accelerating up a hill on a dual carriage way at about 60 mph, 3500 rpm when the EML came on and I lost all power. (no big bang or similar)

Rolled to a stop in a convenient lay by, engine stopped, wouldn't restart. sounded like zero compression on cranking.

Towed home by a friend, investigation result: cam belt snapped clean in two

Its a 2002 2.2 HDi GLX estate 140k miles with nothing else wrong with it apart from a now ruined engine Worth a little over £1000 if I'm lucky. Estimates to fix depend on how much damage there is but I have been told to expect anything from bent valves, snapped cam shaft, broken rockers and quoted up to 1000 to fix.

Anyone any experienced similar? have a spare 2.2Hdi engine lying around? suggestions? hate to throw away an otherwise good car...

Ben

Hi Ben I would take the rocker cover off and have a look,you might get away with one or two rockers being broke , a lso check that the camshaft pulley hasn't sheared the wood ruff key .

Sorry to hear that I guess there's no way to tell how bad the damage is without taking the head off.

Out of interest, how old was the belt/tensioner/idler?

I'm sure you could get hold of a replacement engine if you wanted to give it a go.

Sorry to hear that.

Ade the coupe breaker may be able to help with parts.

There's a cam-cap on this engine and if you're "lucky" the camshaft gets pushed up at the wrong moment by the valve stem and snaps the cam bearing cap (so the camshaft flops about) saving all the rockers and saving bent valves.

Well worth having a quick nosey at the valve train before you condemn the car.

It's unusual I think for a cam belt to snap 'on the go' they normally snap when you fire up the engine. Are you sure it wasn't the auxillary belt getting wound around the bottom pulley?

Oh hang on, just noticed yours is a 16-valver scrub what I said - you will have a chain set up in the rocker cover driving the 'other' cam

Theres a head on the bay 261154720635,might be worth a look.

Thanks for the sympathy, investigations will continue as soon as it stops raining for long enough!

Without digging out the service book and peeling through the old invoices I honestly don't know how old the belt was. I did know it was about due and was planning to swap it at the next service... seems I ran out of luck! Will let you know what else i find.

I had exactly the same happen 3-4 months ago, was doing 70mph in the Estate and everything died, its a bit unnerving when you are in the outside lane!

Luckily i got away with 8 new rockers out of the 16, cambelt, waterpump + tensioners, it's quite a good design and you can get off lightly, i'm also lucky i have a very reasonable mechanic!

If anyone is interested it took out all 8 exhaust valves, 6 rockers and 2 inlet valves... (no idea how it managed that combination) just got to rebuild it now.

Good luck with the repair,sorry to hear about your misfortune.

Ouch! Suggest you price up the parts but also compare wih a 2nd hand engine, saw one recently for £480, maybe there's better ones about......

One guy sold a complete 2.2HDi estate for £361 last week, (rough, but a runner). 281062971223

iwouid send the C/h in and have all new valve's.
atleast that way you know its going to be running healthy afterwards,

you couid buy secound hand lump or C/H but in theory you couid be ending up with worn out parts

Anything is better than selling good car for nothing.
Like the gang said here,try to buy other engine.

Had the entire head rebuilt at a local engine specialist for £250 and its ready to go back on as soon as the Head gasket kits arrives. silly money for these aren't they... all in all i think I'm looking £500 in parts, so not as bad as it could have been.

Out of curiosity, how old and what brand was the belt?