Have to love it when your Wife's car does this...

[Glasstream15]

Pattie's leaving Thursday for North Carolina. Tuesday last week we got a new battery to replace the 5 year old original in her Mazda 3. The car started running a little rough and Wednesday it was really bad. So Thursday I drove it to the nearest Mazda dealer, 18 miles in Jacksonville, to get it checked out. Pattie kept on about it had to be the battery. They did something wrong when they put it in. It was all I could do to tell the service writer what it was doing. No appointment and they got it right in. 30 minutes later the service writer came out with what was left of a spark plug wrapped in a shop towel in her hand. No center electrode. 72,000 miles. Plugs gone and FI getting a little dirty and fuel filters clogged. "Well, now that I think about it, it has been running a little rough for the last couple of weeks."
Cost us $460 dollars but we got a "tune up", fuel system cleaned, oil and filters and rotate & balance. Not bad on a 5 year old car. And if that had happened 8 days later, well she would have been in the middle of nowhere in Georgia or South Carolina. God is looking out for her. And He better be. I NEED her.

 

[twhitehouse]

That sounds entirely reasonable -- except the timing belt is still intact...



Or else cut -- uh ---eyebrows??? slots??? What the heck do you call those slots??? -- in the top surface of the pistons for the valves to fit in. End result is next to nothing -- except the engine doesn't go to pieces if the timing belt breaks.

Piston Valve Reliefs, is the technical term. But they're only designed to keep the valves from barely missing the piston, not to prevent any damage. Almost all engines today are built as interference engines in order to up the horsepower. (Higher compression ratio=easy increase in HP). It's also an emissions thing. Thank congress for that. A freewheeling engine works fine, but everyone wants a 1.0L engine that does 800 HP and gets 90 MPG... and somewhere in between physics comes into play, technology and metalurgy interact, and we end up with the modern engine... (for instance, the new Ford Mustang 3.7l V6) which will do 300+HP and 30+MPG highway IF DRIVEN CORRECTLY! (as a note, I do believe it has an 11:1 compression ratio, and can take regular gas ONLY because of super-high-speed computers and sensors, which can doctor spark advance/retard so precisely it works. It does make more HP with premium.). Sorry, I don't mean to be angry or rude to anyone... I'm an auto tech that sees some of the behind the scene picture...

All that said, I am sorry to see the loss of this engine. (Don't even get me started about Cash For Clunkers..)

Interference engines are good at what they do, don't get me wrong. And if you have an engine with a chain instead of a belt, it basically lasts forever, (barring wear on the chain guides/oil-pressure-dependant tensioners)... Everything is a trade off. Power for MPG, efficiency for complexity, quality for price.

My 20 cents... (I'm sure that was way too much opinion to be 2 cents.) Hehe... end rant.

 

[Glasstream15]

My 20 cents... (I'm sure that was way too much opinion to be 2 cents.) Hehe... end rant.

With inflated prices and deflated currency, that should probably be about $2.00

 

[subwoofer]

I think you hit it there in the second part. If the timing belt is in good shape without cracks or stretching, it's not just going to jump time without the issue being forced by some other failure.

Maybe you already mentioned this and I just didn't see it, but did you check the water pump? Aluminum doesn't just melt without a $h!t ton of heat applied.

mdocod, most important thing here is that your wife came through this unscathed, that was a nasty failure!

I agree that it is very likely that another issue caused the belt to jump and the following catastrophic failure. It is not worth beating yourself up about not changing the belt when, as you say, they pretty much last the life of the engine (and why the hell can't they make one that does - a chain, gears or whatever).

Looking at the damage I wouldn't even think about trying to repair it. Not economical, financially or with your time and effort.

Good luck with finding something else.

 

[Random Guy]

There are cars out there with timing chains instead of belts, and yes, they do last much longer. I also believe there are some cars out there that have a gear driving camshaft (I believe that is what GM pushrod engines use).

Or you could buy an old B230 powered Volvo. Timing belt, but non interference on all the 8 valve versions.

 

[DaveTheDude]

It hurts just looking at those two photos...

 

[jzmtl]

There are cars out there with timing chains instead of belts, and yes, they do last much longer. I also believe there are some cars out there that have a gear driving camshaft (I believe that is what GM pushrod engines use).

Or you could buy an old B230 powered Volvo. Timing belt, but non interference on all the 8 valve versions.

Yep, good old push rod engines, never need a new belt, except the fact many 4 bangers on the market makes more power than my 4 liter does lol.

 

[Lite_me]

Yep, good old push rod engines, never need a new belt, except the fact many 4 bangers on the market makes more power than my 4 liter does lol.

Yeah! We were just at the Mazda dealer looking at their CX-7 mid sized SUV. 2.3L Turbocharged 4cyl - 244HP. My goodness how times have changed.

 

[InTheDark]

Agree with what some of the other people have said, it looks like a timing issue judging by the fact that all the valves on one side are damaged. If it's all exhaust, don't they usually run a lot closer to the piston? (not too familar with kia's though). Even though the timing belt looks fine, it could have skipped or maybe the belt tensioner failed causing it to jump time. Either way, it may or may not have been something that could have been caught by regular maintenance, but in the future I would suggest following the maintenance schedule, they recommend those intervals for a specific reason.

And I'm not sure I follow you on the timing belt/oil change reasoning? How do you figure a timing belt should last 180K?

 

[Tuikku]

As far as I know, there are several cars brands with some year models here in Europe, that basically may last for a full maintenance cycle with one timing belt. I recall some Renault, Opel/Vauxhall.
Many owners know this and do the change earlier.

I have a chain driven engine in my car, -00.
Wife´s car has both. Belt to camshafts and a chain between them
Both driven about 200K miles, not much money in them if I would sell them but still cannot afford to take a chance with maintenance :shrug:

 

[mdocod]

And I'm not sure I follow you on the timing belt/oil change reasoning? How do you figure a timing belt should last 180K?

Hi InTheDark,

I was making a loose comparison between recommended oil change intervals, and how long modern oil can actually last in most engines. And then making an extrapolated comparison to the timing belt.

Eric

 

[sonodelirii]

That's pretty catastrophic, condolences. Reminds me of when my friend threw a rod a few weeks ago. Looked something like this: