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That was a close call
I was only taking a quick look around to see if I could find the source or a regular rumbley noise, opened the cam belt cover, nothing there, turned the engine over on the starter to see if I could see anything irregular, gave up after a minute, and then noticed a great big split in the cam belt sitting on top of the engine Bloody lucky I noticed that.. don't think I would have bothered to get -another- new engine for it if that had gone..

Nice little job for me tomorrow afternoon, assuming the vw dealership actually stocks the right cambelts

OUCH! coulda been VERY nasty! Glad you found it

I only changed it when I had the engine out, so about a month ago Must have been sold a dodgy one, not very happy about that... still, at least the polo's nice and easy to work on, it'd be a hellish job on anything else..

GroovyCarrot wrote:I only changed it when I had the engine out, so about a month ago Must have been sold a dodgy one, not very happy about that... still, at least the polo's nice and easy to work on, it'd be a hellish job on anything else..

I'd be hunting for a cause - sure it might be a defective belt but I'd make dam sure nothing is rubbing or likely to cut the belt before i put a new one on - I'd then play merry hell with whoever sold it to me.......

Aside

Went round to a friends tonight - he's just picked up a Ferrari 308GTS from Switzerland and we had a look at the cam shaft on his Renault Laguna Estate cos it was running rough - he fitted a new camshaft 500 miles ago cos it was a bit rattly and it's started rattling again plus it's knocking when cold and loosing power - all the lobes are worn down about 5mm it worse than the one he took out (130,000 miles) - he thought oil starvation but there is no blueing on the metal at all it's polished like chrome - I ran a file accross the non loadbearing section of the cam and it bit in like butter - I reckon he has a faulty camshaft that hasn't been case hardened properly - That will be going back and no doubt a bit of compensation will be asked for as all those bits of metal probably went straight for the mains!!!!!

Well, I've noticed a bit of marking on the side of the cambelt that split, about two inches either side of the split.. all I can think of is somehow a stone or something has got inside the cover and got caught in the belt as it ran around a sprocket, although I don't know how that would have happened.. I'll have a better look at the sprockets themselves tomorrow, don't want this happening again... unfortunately I think I'd be sending the car to the scrap heap rather than rebuilding everything if the belt snapped..

damn man! lucky call........

Well, I've changed the belt.. it's making a very odd whirring noise now.. I'm hoping it's just because it's a new belt and it isn't very flexible yet, it's a bit disconcerting though.. and my alternator belt is slipping every time I slow and shift down a gear, bloody embarrassing and I don't know why it's doing it because it's as tight as I can get it. But still, with luck that's averted any kind of major disaster for now

GroovyCarrot wrote:my alternator belt is slipping every time I slow and shift down a gear, bloody embarrassing and I don't know why it's doing it because it's as tight as I can get it. But still, with luck that's averted any kind of major disaster for now

WD40 keeps it quiet Seriously!!!!!

Just found out why the alternator belt was slipping... I hadn't attached the bottom bracket properly, it had come unbolted and was just resting against the engine block Anyway, that one's sorted now Just got to stop the cam belt whirring now... seems to be sitting a bit off centre on the camshaft sprocket as well, don't know how to get it more central, any suggestions?

Ive just changed the same type of belt (square tooth) on my dark blue GT, Its noisy like you describe. I thought it was catching on the timing belt cover but it aint. Nor is it the alternator. Seriously pissing me off!

Yeah, that's what I thought at first.. it is certainly running a bit off centre, it's sitting too far towards the engine on the camshaft sprocket, but not drastically so. It doesn't seem to be catching anywhere, it doesn't get hot when I run it so I don't think there's a friction problem anywhere.. it just sounds like some kind of ancient variomatic gearbox or something, nasty and whiney. I've changed the alternator, and I've retensioned the belt so it's not that, it's definately the timing belt. I guess I'll just leave it a week and see if it dies away of it's own accord. When I fitted the last belt I don't remember it being noisy like that, but then again I was focussing more on the fact that the tappets were sticky having not been run for a while, and the exhaust was blowing because I hadn't bolted it on properly... plus I hadn't driven the car for a month so I wouldn't necessarily have recognised an out of place noise. Still, it is a bit worrying..

mine whirred like a bloody dyson when i had the belt changed, thought they'd totally cowboyed me

think it might just be the sound of a new belt though, it doesnt do it any more

That's reassuring.. still, I think I'll take a look and see if I can get it to run closer to the centre of the sprockets this weekend.. anyone know of any reason why it'd be running off centre? Might just have been how I fitted it I guess, no reason it would have centred itself if I'd fitted it slightly off.

Tahrey, how long did yours take to quite down after it was fitted?

Yeah I feel alot better now too. Its getting better I think gradually but Ive only done about 40 miles since I changed it so I cant be sure just yet. Sounds better than before I changed it though. Sounded like my engine was full of sand with the old one.

uh.... kind of gradual. didnt really notice when it stopped, but it was at least a month or two back when it was no longer audible.

all i can say is "it isnt doing it now"
changed it maybe 10000 miles back?