Hoping someone can give me advice. My 2011 (60k) miles volvo is having problems!

6 months ago as I was driving the alternator belt broke - nothing else was damaged and garage replaced the belt.

3 weeks ago belt broke again. Garage replaced the belt but I could feel that the car wasn't quite right didnt have as much power as usual. I decided to test it on the motorway and put my foot down and it got to about 2500 revs and then the engine maintenance light came on. Back to garage he thought it was air flow meter - changed that. But still not right - driving fine until 3000 revs and then no more power. Garage couldnt understand what was wrong.

Took elsewhere - they said the timing belt had been knocked off 2 notches so fixed that but car still not right so they said a piece of the alternator belt is like lodged somewhere within the engine head and has damaged something and they would have to take it all apart to figure out what is wrong - costing hundreds and then would have to send to lithuania to get fixed (someone there fixes them) - costing thousands...

Now the car still works still drives just not as much power and is noisier than before - is it likely there is 1000s worth of damage or is there any possibility someone would be able to figure out what is wrong and just fix it ?!

Dont know who to believe - I have a few people telling me different things and I dont want to do something thats going to cost me more in long run. Sorry I am not sure what details are relevant!! Can provide more info if required.

 

the alternator (aka drive) belt is external to the car. Sometimes when the belt breaks - likely due to a failed tensioner or idler, the belt can whip around and knock the timing belt off or worse, break the timing belt as well - which will crash all the exhaust valves. So its quite possible the valve timing was off leading to reduced performance. The two most likely scenarios for an internal engine problem are 1) when the timing went off you have a slightly bent valve - which would be diagnosed by a compression and leak down test or video cam inspection 2) the tech did not properly reset the VVT hubs when they were refitting the belt. I think the first thing is to have a compression test done then recheck the timing belt/cam gear settings.

 

thank you! I will arrange for compression test tomorrrow.

Just to prepare myself - if it is bent valves - is that thousands to fix or what is the worst case there?

if it is the second thing - is that an easy fix?

Thank you v much for your help!!

 

bent valves means the head has to come off = big bucks. Redoing the timing properly may require a new tensioner but shouldn't take more than a few hours labor. Best to find a shop with Volvo experience...

 

The price of progress.....My 2015 V60 pumps out about 2X the HP that the 3L straight 6 in my 1960 Healey 3000 provided using perhaps half the fuel but...when the welch plug on the back of the head developed a leak and I had to pull the head for repair (no clearance between the head and the firewall) it took me about 45 min. including the time needed to remove the carbs to remove the manifold (space problem again) The hardest part was lifting that big chunk of iron. So long as it was off, I took it to a machine shop for a valve job (70,000+ miles) Three days and about $100 later (including a new gasket) it was back together.