Blown headers - advice needed

[Joe91]

Hi All,

So the other day I was driving along and the car died, pretty much stopped running doing 110km/h on the Federal Highway. I pulled over and couldn't see anything to my uneducated eyes and called NRMA, he declared a broken camshaft belt.

Long story short, the mechanic tells me I have done some/all of the headers - the first quote he has given me is $4k for exchanged headers. He suspects the belt had never been changed since new as there were cracks around all the teeth.

I would have thought a new engine would cost about this? He is still waiting on some places in Sydney for more prices and options, unfortunately a lot of places are still closed.

The car was bought around 18 months ago from a reputable dealer in Sydney at 119,000kms. They have a 2 year warranty, but since I have had the car serviced here in Canberra, the warranty is void.

The car is an 04 2.5L Liberty with around 160k on the clock.

Just wondering if anyone has any advice that can be shared... I feel sick!

Cheers,
Joe

[dr20t]

Hi joe

Sorry to hear of your situation

Just to clarify a few points:

Headers are the exhaust manifold (the pipes that come out of your motor and connect to your exhaust)

I think what you're meaning to say is your heads are blown

From what you've described, if indeed your timing belt has snapped then its more than your heads that have blown. It would infact be your motor completely needing replacement

Type in "broken timing belt" into the search function above and this shall yield some results for you

Good luck

Mick

[Joe91]

G'day Mick,

Thanks for the explanation!

Not sure if this is visible to non-members, but I have the same thread posted over here - http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showt ... ?t=1066008

Shopping around for better prices at the moment.

Cheers
Joe

[Mat04]

Nope not viewable joe but I have an engine for sale that has thrown a bum end bearing so heads should be fine. If interested I could strip apart and inspect otherwise i could deliver the engine to you.

[Adrian2627]

Joe I'd be checking further into your warranty as having the car serviced in Canberra shouldn't make any difference unless it's stated in the warranty terms that it must be done in Sydney. Sounds a bit suss. Dealers will sometimes try that one on in the hope that people will not take it further. I'd check your warranty and give Fair Trading a call and ask about your rights then go back and see the dealer. You're going to be up for a new engine if the belt has gone as the valves will most likely be bent, heads, pistons, and conrods, potentially damaged. All up $4k is about where it will start.

[Joe91]

Thanks gents.

The warranty statements says that the car must be serviced from one of the dealer's service centers. The car was bought from Tynan Motors so from everything I've heard they're quite reputable.

Someone recommended me to Techworkz in Tuggeranong, he was able to source an engine for $2.5k, or $3.5k once delivery and labour is all done. I'll have to have the car towed there since its at another place right now, who have already fitted a new timing belt kit which will come off and go onto the new engine. The guy who has the car at the moment told me he couldn't do any cheaper - all he could give me today was $4k to get the heads exchanged.

Just waiting for a service history/km's of this engine but should be good.

http://www.techworkz.com.au/index.php

He specialises in Subaru's so that's a bit of a plus.

Expensive little exercise...

Thanks again all

[Adrian2627]

Thanks gents.

The warranty statements says that the car must be serviced from one of the dealer's service centers. The car was bought from Tynan Motors so from everything I've heard they're quite reputable.

Someone recommended me to Techworkz in Tuggeranong, he was able to source an engine for $2.5k, or $3.5k once delivery and labour is all done. I'll have to have the car towed there since its at another place right now, who have already fitted a new timing belt kit which will come off and go onto the new engine. The guy who has the car at the moment told me he couldn't do any cheaper - all he could give me today was $4k to get the heads exchanged.

Just waiting for a service history/km's of this engine but should be good.

http://www.techworkz.com.au/index.php

He specialises in Subaru's so that's a bit of a plus.

Expensive little exercise...

Thanks again all

I'd still check up with fair trading on the warranty. Car companies used to have similar conditions but something caused the change I can't remember what though.

That's a pretty good price for an engine refit. I imagine that's secondhand not reco? Be sure to ask about the ks on the replacement engine and if it's 80000+ get the timing belt replaced before it's fitted. A good mechanic should do it but make sure anyway.