My wife's 1999 Volvo wagon XC70 died the other day because of a broken timing belt. The mechanic wants to charge $170 to install a new belt before he can estimate how much it will cost to fix the engine.

The vehicle is overall only in fair condition. I don't think it is worth the money to fix the belt and get the estimate.

How much of a chance is there that the engine escaped major damage?

 

No chance. Sorry. The cylinder head has to come off for inspection and repair.

 

Thank you for the bad news

 

Yes, sorry about that. And you need to find another mechanic. It's pointless to install a new timing belt on an interference engine that's had a timing belt failure.

 

I thought he was trying to "milk" me for some money and just had the car picked up yesterday. Probably will end up parting out the vehicle or sell it as a parts car.

Checked on e-bay last night and found some re-built cylinder heads for about $400. Maybe I'll try to tackle the R&R of the cylinder head myself. Will have to do a little more investigation about that project though.

 

Hi Prdropescador, welcome to the forum.

If you don't mind sharing the conditions of the timing belt failure, I believe many would appreciate it.

Miles:
Last belt replacement:
If roller failed or belt simply broke:

 

When we purchased the car it had just had the head rebuilt because the engine had overheated. So I figured the belt was replaced at that time since the mileage was around 80 k. Now there are 141k on the engine and the belt should have been good for another 20 k.

But the belt broke, maybe too soon or maybe it was not replaced when they rebuilt the upper end of the motor.

I advertised the car for parts on Craigslist and had several inquiries (besides the typical scam artists) and sold it the first day for $ 900 to another Volvo owner that needed a transmission.

Now the big question is: what to buy next.

 

Thanks for the input and glad you got it sold for a decent price. Hope you get something in good shape.