“It made some bad noises and then just died.” ——teenaged daughter
Culprit is a 2008 Forenza and the timing belt has about 400 miles on it since I replaced it (Amazon parts 
)
What do I do? Throw another belt at it? Haul it to the scrap yard? Why would a belt snap like this and how do I keep it from happening again?
Interference engine? Hope not! Bad idler roller/tensioner/pulley?
400 miles? A belt would have to be fabulously crap to fail at that interval. Something seized that is driven by the toothed side.
Have you checked the oil?
Good oil...engine cranks over...cam shafts turn over freely...idler/tension pulleys all free and easy-moving. Nothing seized.
Hmm. Nothing else to add.
KyAllroad (Jeremy) said:
“It made some bad noises and then just died.” ——teenaged daughter
Culprit is a 2008 Forenza and the timing belt has about 400 miles on it since I replaced it (Amazon parts
What do I do? Throw another belt at it? Haul it to the scrap yard? Why would a belt snap like this and how do I keep it from happening again?
The only time I see belts BREAK like that is if something got in between the crank pulley and the belt. Look near the breakage area, you might find evidence. Also look for any places where a bolt or nut is missing.
I broke a brand new timing belt once when a nut fell down into the timing belt area when I was rolling it over to double check the belt alignment. Oops. Fortunately it was a VW and the belt was $7...
Was the previous belt just old or was it showing signs of wearing/fraying?
In reply to EastCoastMojo :
The previous belt was just old.
What is the brand name of the belt. Maybe do a google search for issues with that company
Google says it IS an interference engine. You maybe got lucky, but I doubt it.
My gut says bad things. Cam shouldn't turn freely. It should take significant torque to turn the cam. Does it sound normal when cranking or does it just kind of whir with an occasional slowing?
I'm also a bit concerned that she described it as "funny noises and then died." Breaking a timing belt on a non-interference engine usually just feels like you turned the key off. No funny noises involved.
If you can, post a quick video or audio of cranking.
I’d imagine the funny noises were whatever caused the belt to break and the belt breaking caused it to die.
So maybe something came loose and bounced around before lodging in the belt and breaking it
Good news is a take-out motor should be under $750, so at least its a cheap fix. Considering the belt is broken I would just get to pulling the old motor out.
So I haven’t done any more to the POS yet but it is an interference engine so odds are 99% the valves are bent. Here is the breakdown.
paid $150 for the car with a bad HG.
paid $115 for replacement HG and TB.
paid $160 to machine shop to do the head for assembly
replaced all the brake pads $50
replaced the throttle body ($75) due to surging at partial throttle.
So I’m about $550 into the car at this point. Tiger Mom took it to a shop for diagnosis and cleaning and got taken advantage of to the tune of $400 (!!!).
I really don’t care for this car but the teenager seems to like it well enough. It needs tires too before winter.
Dump it and find something that runs for $1,500?
There are not many $1500 cars that are turn key that dont need some maintance of some kind.
Im pretty sure i bought a complete reman head for one of those for $400 off ebay. I would guess that some object fell between the belt and a pulley and got squeezed so hard that it tore the belt partially in that spot. Then that frayed part of the belt went around slapping the cover for a couple of seconds until the tear spread all the way across and the belt completely failed. So i would guess something fell off inside the timing cover, either a broken chunk of the cover, or a nut/bolt.
At this point fixing it would only be because you liked it. Between the repair and the set of tires you're almost all the way to another running car, and the free time you have to spend fixing it, plus whatever downtime from it being broke.. I would guess all that adds up to another $1500+ car. Unless you just love the Suzuki.
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