Ford Focus, Timing belt replacement (now serious issue)

Forest Demon

I have a 2004 Ford focus 1.4 for about a year and it has never had any issues. Always started first time and never broke down once in the past year. It was getting time for the timing belt to be changed soon so I thought I would put a bit of money into the car preemptively as I got a few quid and cannot afford a new car. Before I got the work done I visited the garage for a visual inspection of the car to see if it was worth spending the money on. I told the mechanic that I have recently heard a ticking sound from the engine that increased with acceleration for a bit when the car was first started but it went away after a bit of driving.

I got a call from the garage to say that there was a problem with my engine and that the valves were damaged and some if not all needed to be replaced.

Now I know that this kind of damage can happen when a belt snaps or slips but in my case the car was driven into the garage fully functioning by the mechanic.

What is the likelihood of this issue existing before it went to the garage?

I don't have the cost of the extra work yet for the replacement of the valves or any work to the head but who should pay this cost? The reason I was getting the belt done was to avoid such a situation.

Money is very tight at the moment and I want to get a second opinion from a couple of people in the know.

The garage is a well reviewed, independent reputable garage.

Any advice welcome

Henry Ford III

Sounds very fishy that.

George Dalton

We have had 2 of these that slipped the timing after replacing the belt, despite the crank pulley bolt being torqued to Ford specs. One slipped about 30 seconds after startup, the other had about 10 minutes running before slipping. Both of them bent all 16 valves. I wonder has something similar happened in this case?

Incidentally ever since the second incident we have used our own torque settings for the bolt (in other words f*&king tight!) and have had no problems.

Also, in both incidences we repaired the damage at our own expense and didn't try to pass the buck on to the customer.

gctest50

Forest Demon wrote: »

I got a call from the garage at the end of the day to say that there was a problem with my engine and that the valves were damaged and some if not all needed to be replaced.

Are the valves bent or wear 'n tear ?

Forest Demon

gctest50 wrote: »

Are the valves bent or wear 'n tear ?

He said a couple were virtually falling out

Not too sure about the wear and tear.

Would it be usual to be checking them unless there was an incident with the belt after fitting?

Forest Demon

George Dalton wrote: »

We have had 2 of these that slipped the timing after replacing the belt, despite the crank pulley bolt being torqued to Ford specs. One slipped about 30 seconds after startup, the other had about 10 minutes running before slipping. Both of them bent all 16 valves. I wonder has something similar happened in this case?

Incidentally ever since the second incident we have used our own torque settings for the bolt (in other words f*&king tight!) and have had no problems.

Also, in both incidences we repaired the damage at our own expense and didn't try to pass the buck on to the customer.

This sounds like the same situation.

Forest Demon

I have to make a call on this today. Any advice in how I can prove that the damage was not pre existing f it was not?

Is it enough that the car was driving when it went into the garage? Can a car be driving without issues with damaged valves?

Is it possible that it could have been a pre existing problem and the garage is telling the truth.

Anan1

Might the ticking noise have been valves touching pistons before the car went in?

Stoolbend

Ask to see the old belt and tensioner. If these aren't broken, the problem more than likely happened after the timing belt change and should be repaired by the garage.

Stoolbend

Anan1 wrote: »

Might the ticking noise have been valves touching pistons before the car went in?

The ticking noise is usually the tensioner maxed out from the worn timing belt. A ticking noise on cold start up on one of these should not be ignored.

Anan1

Stoolbend wrote: »

The ticking noise is usually the tensioner maxed out from the worn timing belt. A ticking noise on cold start up on one of these should not be ignored.

Could it have damaged valves?

Stoolbend

I wouldn't have thought so. If it hit a valve you'd lose compression straight away.

Forest Demon

Ok it turns out that the timing belt had not even been done when the damage was found and it was wear and tear on a couple of the valves.

Thanks for all suggestions.