1.0 & 1.2 Wet Belt Failures

The timing belt is a crucial part of the engine, it keeps the valves and pistons in perfect sync ensuring timing is spot on and the engine purring.

Newer engines have moved to a wet belt system, what this means is that instead of the timing belt being located on the outside of the engine, it is now encased within and is immersed in the engine oil, hence the term wet belt.

Unfortunately this comes with it's own problem, the oil can actually degrade the rubber of the belt and causes it to perrish over time.

Due to this the replacement intervals are greatly reduced compared to their old counterparts, you can check the interval on our service schedule guide which can be found here. Use of the incorrect oil can also speed up the belt degradation which is unfortunately something we see a lot of.

As the belt degrades it starts to develop deep cracks on the outer face which can often be seen via the oil filler cap.

If the belt is still not changed, pieces of the innner face which are in contact with the pulleys start to break away and build up in the oil.

Larger pieces are usually caught by the oil pump strainer, much smaller pieces can unfortunately get through and start to build up on other filters on various other parts the oil enters. The most common faults tend to be,

1) Brake vacuum pump blockage - resulting in a loss of braking.

2) Variable timing solenoid or dephaser blockages - resulting in timing faults, poor running, lack of power.

3) Oil pump blockage - resulting in poor oil circulation and possibly engine failure.

4) The timing belt becomes too thin and snaps - resulting in a total loss of the engine.

You can drastically reduce the chances of this happening to you by changing the belt when required if not just before, and ensuring the correct oil* is used by your garage, or when you top-up the oil. *5w30 Fully-Synthetic FPW9.55535/03.

By following this you can potentially avoid any of these problems happening to you and save yourself on unneccesary repairs.