Hey guys, just bought a 97 lude SH and after 2 days of having it, my timing belt broke. I was doing about 135 m/h on the highway for about 3 secs. pressed the brakes to slow down because of an idiot in the left lane doing like 50, he moved over and when I pressed on the gas, it was like I was sailing in the wind Anyways, can a broken timing belt screw up the valves? A mechanic told me not on the ludes since they are to far... I have a hard time believing him....

 

The last i heard - our cars are interference engines. And since you were going 135mph like an idiot, you could have bent something.

Do a leak down test on all cylinders. That will tell you if you bent anything.

Remove the spark plug, put your finger over the hole and have someone bump the starter. If your finger never gets blown off the hole (TDC), then a valve isn't seating correctly - which 98% of the time means that it is bent.

135mph = vtec
vtec = interference
interference + broken timing belt = ouch
ouch = not good
not good = your piston(s) helped close your valves

 

Thanks for the advice The Weather Man. Good thing I have a 2 year warranty

 

yeah your warranty is NOT going to cover any of this... specially if you bent something

 

why the hell were you going that fast?

 

I took an optional warranty for 2 years and it covers mechanical parts, cost me like 450 bucks. It says it covers pistons, gaskets, motor block, and all lubrified pieces. So I guess pretty much everything is included. I see either today or tomorrow

 

Just wanted to test the car for like 3 seconds. Im not a crazy driver, but was just curious what she can do. Believe me, Im not doing that ever again!

 

You may be ok, but bent/broken valves are usually a sign of extreme use, ie not warranty For your sake I hope they cover it.

I would not beleive your mechanic either. I have never broken a timing belt, but the valves do overlap and can hit each other or the piston. So if your timing is all of a sudden off (or WAY off in this case), you can do some serious damage as Weatherman said.

Good luck

Also seach this site, I doubt you are the first to do this.

 

I finally got an update from the mechanic: Replaced timing belt and everything is OK. No dented valves or screwed up pistons and he test drove it, working fine. He said there was not even 700 miles on it, but the person who installed it last time forgot a bolt/pin (he spoke french so dont know what it is in english) and that caused the timing belt to split in half. Cant wait to test it tonight and if everything goes well i'll be damn happy to have my lude back after only having it for 2 days Now I just hope nothing else goes wrong...

 

Good news

You got lucky, it's good you let off right away i guess.