V70: Timing Belt - Can I get any recourse from Volvo

[ali b]

Hi,

I have a 58 plate V70 D5 Lux that broke down yesterday. Lucky for me that I have AA cover, the AA patrol diagnosed the problem that the alternator belt had failed, I think his exact words were that it had shredded.

The car is now at my local garage (not Volvo) who have investigated and told me that when the alternator belt failed, it wrapped itself round the pulley next to the timing belt cover and the then worked it's way inside and then caused the timing belt to snap. His starting estimate for the repair is around £1000, but until the he'd stripped the engine down he can't be sure.

The car has done 105K miles and was due for a timing belt in the next couple of months.

My question is can I get help from Volvo on this issue? It seems to me that there is a flaw in the design that an alternator belt failing should be able to cause this much damage, or am I being far to naive in this?

[mikealder]

There have been a few reports of this problem, is the car still running on the original belt or was changed some time back, its probably worth talking to Volvo about it and I doubt you will end up paying only £1K to fix it, could be considerably more - Mike

[ali b]

I don't know, I haven't changed any of the belts. The car had done 85K when I bought it, and I've have had it serviced once and I don't think any belts were changed. Prior to me owning the car, it was a lease car and was serviced by Volvo and so assume that if any belts needed changing, it would have been done.

[halfamp]

Sadly i doubt you will get much change out of volvo

Need to get my belt done this is first car ive had for years that does not have a timing chain, dont trust the bloody things at all
More and more manufacturers are now using chain drive in the interests of reliabiilty its time volvo did.

[lyron]

i doubt you would have any comeback on volvo,sorry to say ut i think mikes right about the cost. when most of us buy cars if we do not know the history of the car we would put new belts on reguardless. have a word with your local main agent and see if the belts had been changed(they can give you a print out off there data base, normaly you would only get a twelve month warranty on parts anyway. good luck with it and i hope things turn out ok for you.

ron.

[galloot633]

Originally Posted by halfamp

Sadly i doubt you will get much change out of volvo

Need to get my belt done this is first car ive had for years that does not have a timing chain, dont trust the bloody things at all
More and more manufacturers are now using chain drive in the interests of reliabiilty its time volvo did.

thats how I used to think before my daughters audi timing chain tensioner failed at 30k!
Dave

[stephend]

I don't think you'd have recourse to it being a design flaw, and I've heard plenty of cases of this happening to non-Volvo. I think you've just been very unlucky, and I sympathise!

Where you might possibly have a case is if you've had the car religiously serviced according to the Volvo schedule at the dealer. If so, you might hope they'd pick up on any deterioration of the generator belt, and fix it (whether as part of the schedule, or as a separate advice item) before it could fail and do damage. Maybe they'd agree to defray at least part of the repair costs as a good-will gesture...

[halfamp]

Originally Posted by galloot633

thats how I used to think before my daughters audi timing chain tensioner failed at 30k!
Dave

Of course there will be failures, however overall i think chains are a far more satisfactory method of camshaft drive which is why despite being more expensive its used on most modern bmw jaguar nissan mazda mercedes toyota to name a few in fact i think bmw for eg have not used a belt driven cam engine since the demise of the m20 engine twenty five years or so ago( interestingly the guy who designed that engine never wanted it to be belt driven but the bean counters over ruled him)

[cassell]

There have been numerous threads on the diesel engine forum about your problem, I suffered a failure on my 2008 S80 D5 in late 2009 and the full repair was covered by Volvo.

The thread below will highlight the problem which is caused by a failure of the auxilliary belt tensioner, resulting in this belt wrapping itself around the cam belt!

http://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showth...light=cam+belt

Volvo should be able to tell whether your car was submitted for the tensioner recall, and whether belts were changed at the due mileage. If so, you may be able to negotiate a contribution to your repair. If not, you are probably going to be up the creek without a paddle, sorry!

From memory, if damage is restricted to the 'top end' and just a cylinder head is required, the likely cost is around £2k, if however there is damage to pistons and main engine parts, a replacement D5 engine from Volvo is around £7k.

Good Luck.

Paul

[Volvo-in-my-blood]

Unless you have a warranty still in place with Volvo and you take it to a main dealer for servicing then there is no chance of Volvo UK paying towards the repairs. The matrix the dealers work off for repair contributions is very prescriptive.