Member Since: 10 Apr 2006
Location: batemans bay
Posts: 1605
I thought the engine was the one thing that
would stay together on the D3 Pete
3rd Apr 2010 11:16 pm
Q86ARR
Member Since: 23 Feb 2010
Location: Jersey
Posts: 378
norto wrote:
I thought the engine was the one thing that
would stay together on the D3
You thought wrong! Look at these pics. 23000 miles. Cambelt tensioner fallen off due to engine case fracture.
Click image to enlarge
Click image to enlarge
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4th Apr 2010 11:13 am
Willy Eckerslike
Member Since: 12 Jan 2009
Location: N Yorks
Posts: 1612
Did it seize then snap off or just fall off Nasty either wayClub Pie n Pea
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4th Apr 2010 11:30 am
robsmith
Member Since: 02 Sep 2007
Location: Staffordshire
Posts: 2392
Looking at the third picture I'd say it was a long term (if you can call 23k miles long) fault not an instant failure. So I would suggest that there was a casting flaw in the bracket.
If you look at the fracture site you can see various shades of dark grey and a patch of lighter grey in the fracture zone. This suggests that there was a crack developing over a period of time (weeks-months), which finally reached a critical size and as they say, the rest is history.
Once the tensioner was free it would do all sorts of nasty things, the belt would be shredded (bits of chewed up belt are visible in the same picture), the belt could now skip a tooth or two, assisted by the tensioner getting into the wrong place. Once the camshafts were out of synchronisation the valves would come into contact with the pistons and very soon the engine would stop being an engine and become a lump of scrap metal.
Normally when a tensioner bearing fails you strip the teeth off the belt and do not break the tensioner mounting - the damage taking the route of least resistance to destroying your engine, pick up the story at "the belt could now skip a tooth or two......."
I hope that was covered under warranty because at the age of your engine it certainly should have been.Rob Smith
Silver rools OK
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