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Timing belt slip on Laguna

After moderately heavy braking, my Renault Laguna 1.8 RT (8 valve) lost power, eventually stalled and refused to start. RAC thought timing belt must have slipped since there was fuel and spark, which a repair garage thought unlikely until they saw the state of the timing belt which apparently had some missing teeth. I feared the worst but then they told me they'd done a compression test and thought the valves were okay. They're now waiting for the timing belt kit to arrive so they can fix it, but I'm still worried. How far can a timing belt slip on this or a similar engine before valve damage occurs? If it slips one tooth at a time, will it reach a point where the engine refuses to run before damage occurs?

Joe

Reply to
Joe Kelleher
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The serpentine belt on my Laguna shredded and a small portion wrapped around the crank pulley before getting under the cambelt and causing it to jump teeth. I'm not certain exactly how many teeth it jumped, but the engine continued to run albeit with a 'pinging' noise which was presumably the valve hitting the pistons. It (the engine) survived the experience. HTH Pete

Reply to
Pete

Thanks for the info. Mine was definitely not running, but no pinging noise either. Hmm, perhaps the state of the cambelt is a coincidence and the problem is something else entirely. Which model of Laguna was this, out of interest? Should I be worried about my serpentine belt too?

Joe

Reply to
Joe Kelleher

Hmm, my autodata book shows the earlier upto 97 8v's to be non interference. Can someone confirm??

Tim..

Reply to
Tim (Remove NOSPAM.

It was the 1.9 TDi. There was a red recall on the alternator pulley which I didn't receive until after this problem occurred. Apparently the previous pulley caused the belt to shred and cast, so it was changed F.O.C.

Pete

Reply to
Pete

I certainly hope it is (my docs say it was registered 1 August 1997), although I was under the impression that non-interference engines were rare and that there weren't any Renaults that had them.

Joe

Reply to
Joe Kelleher

To update, I've now got the car back. New cambelt kit (which means tensioner as well I think) fitted for £256 inc, which also included a 1-mile tow. So whether it's due to the only limited cambelt slip, or to a non-interference engine, it looks like I've been lucky.

The engine does seem a little noisier now, and the idle speed seems fractionally lower. Could this be due to some kind of non-fatal valve damage? Or possibly that the valve timing was already wrong before it became so wrong that it wouldn't run, meaning I'm now getting better compression than I had before?

Joe

Reply to
Joe Kelleher

How on earth have they managed to do a compression test with a knackered timing belt fitted?????????

These engines 99.9% of the time bend valves when the valve timing slips. Also the keyway on the cam sprockect sheers so remove and inspect before attempting to reset the valve timing. Simon :-(

Reply to
Simon Allen

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