People may find this hard to read.

driving home tonight..

All going well, got back to bedford, on the A421 i decided to over take a lorry.

Fine..

Then.. i hear a slapping sound from the aux belt area.

at this point the i looked for the best area to shut her down ASAFP.

now im not sure what happened... weather the car shut its self off.. OR i did it, it was a blur to tell the truth.

i get out, open the bonnet.. and well.. its the worse feeling in my life knowing that she may be dead.

The Aux belt has shredded, and i can see cords hanging EVERY where.
The belt was changed when i had the re-spray. its less than a year old..

so i make a few calls, i get my bro to deliver me a knife / stanley blade and i cut the belt off and un tangled the cords from the belt area, Alternator and PS pump.

i can not tell you how much i felt sick.
i was speaking with joe on the phone who whispered the words into my ear like an uncle would do and told me every thing will be all right.

so i turned the key.

SHE LIVES AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

no bent vales, no misfire, its fine.

i drove her home with no power steering with the battery light on.

ive never been happier out of the worst situation that you could have!!!!!

photos coming of the carnage.

i cant thank Joe enough for keeping me chilled on the phone and not pushing it into the middle of the dual carriage way.

Flea if your reading this.
Cambelt guards needed ASAP!!!
this was a close call, too close.

p.s Joe Enjoy your pint mate, you deserve it!!

you sounded more worried than me on the phone but still managed to keep a cool head

Glad to hear you got away with it Marco, you lucky italian bi-sexual animal abuser

lucky escape marco just got mine back on the road after an engine change by joe and £1100 lighter lol

Oh, and JBT does a pulley enhancement that stops the aux belts going into the cambelt - if you wait for Flea's it could be aaaages

Lucky! Thou I might have a buy for an engine then lol

how much is jbts guard is it easy to fit?

Barbz offers one as well. Its a bigger version of JBT.

Ross

Been there, done that, wished I had pushed it into the centre of the dc.....dead engine!

Congrats on escaping so lightly!

Just uploading the photos.

Feel Sick looking at them..

You big drama queen!

If the cambelt went, then you would have had reason to cry.

Before I got unde my car, I saw this....


Manage to remove the guard and well...



Sorry looking coupe... I hate seeing it like this...


Now close up of my belt! Dont forget I ad to cut the belt to get it off..


I'm enjoying a fresh pint and changing my underware and cleaning my seat as there seems to be a brown patch on it!!!!

I assume if the Aux belts go on a 20vt they cream cracker the engine in most instances?

Either way thank god yours lives to fight another day

The aux belts themselves don't i understand, it's when they then foul the cambelt

Nearly all aux belts break apart and tangle into the cam belt area and WACK it Jars the crank an causes the pistons to kid the valves.

I'm flipping lucky.

marco marco marco
You LUCKY LUCKY boy!

MAMMA MIA, that is close, lucky you didnt have the music loud and stopped straight away. I would of had brown stains in my pants too mate.
At least all is good.

I had it in my mind and Joe can vouch on this.

IF it bent the valves she would of been scrapped and I would of moved on to some thing else...

Some thing caused it...

I've spent about an hour looking at the belt.

It's stripped in half....
Why??

What caused it?

What make of belt was it mate?

Sounds weird but I felt it on my foot??

Hard to explain but it felt like a light tapping on my right foot...

No matter what, it was lucky.

Dayco

Dayco belts are normaly pretty good

Yep, I know mate.

The last belt lasted 3 years.

This one lasted 9months give or take...

So my question still stands...
WHY??

That is a funny one mate.
God knows why.....

Glad it all worked out as well as it could have under the circumstances.

Got me scared now though, esp as its a sprinty! My belts were changed 18 months and less than 5miles ago. With 2 euro trips planned next year. I will have to budget a belt change in the spring to be safe!

Scary stuff!

Bloody hell Marco!!

Maybe this is your cars way of saying - please stop fiddling with me!!

Glad everything seems ok though matey

Yes, you've been lucky Marco

Glad the car is ok and will live on

strange? could be a worn tensioner

I think one may have failed but not sure.....

Looking at your pics you have been lucky.

I think you need to check the pulleys for their run-out. It appears to be (and I am only guessing from a few pics) that you may have run-out issues with one or more of your pulleys or maybe the bearing at the power steering pump is suspect giving the same symptoms.

Given how the belt seems to have delaminated I think there has been some HCF (caused by the run-out)which has caused a crack in the belt resulting in it peeling away as it has.

Glad you were lucky. Good to see one beat the odds!