Ford Zetec 1.25 Timing Belt

[Doug99]

My wife was driving from home recently when the car started 'rattling'. Despite the noise she continued to drive for about a mile further to get home without any noticeable drop in performance. The AA diagnosed a broken timing belt and towed it to my local garage.
Hopefully it is something less costly as I would have thought she would have come to a standstill with a broken timing belt.

Is it possible to drive with a broken belt?

 

[joe-90]

No. Broken fan belt more like. No timing belt means no valves opening or closing and usually destroys the pistons.

 

[Spark123]

What model of car - I'm thinking fiesta? What age?

 

[kilovolt]

He probably means the tensioner/pulleys are loose which means no damage,provided you dont run engine anymore.Call out mobile mechanic

 

[davydunt]

could be a badly frayed timing belt with the frayed ends beating off the timing cover ? but if the timing belt breaks, its sudden death the engine will stop dead.

on a lighter note some of the younger fords were designed to retract the valves in the event of a broken tb, but dont hold me to that.

 

[gman76]

I once had a car's timing belt slip a tooth, which resulted in the engine sounding not dissimilar to a diesel. A new belt and tensioner sorted it with no other damage.

It was a 1.4 rover K series though.

 

[tryingnottobeafool]

FORDS are notorious from fiesta to transit van for belt problems and ALWAYS change before times up


a lot of tensioners / followers are plastic and are rubbish


if you are getting ANY make of car done always change tensioners/ bearings at same time

you are lucky no serious damage and your wife deserves pat on back

 

[Doug99]

It turned out to be the timing belt tensioner that failed. It's plastic housing had shattered and caused a racket when driven.

Wallet is happy.............Phew!!