Land Rover 110_Timing Belt Problem

[udayap]

Dear Experts,

The land rover 110 of my friend was overhauled very recently. After around 3000 Kms done, the timing belt got busted (actually teeth got worn off) damaging some parts of the engine {push rods,etc}. The person who did the repair put the blame on the brand new timing belt (OEM) which was purchased from the agent. I contacted the agent and they too surprised on this matter. Giving a chance for factory defects, we bought the whole set of parts, including the timing belt and asked the same person to fix the problem. The disaster struck again, after around 600 km, the timing belt failed again.

Now i am sure that the timing belt is not the culprit. Whole problem is due to wrong done by the garage people. However, Few days ago, the vehicle was checked (externally) by the agent and they too said there is nothing unusual in vehicle noise or engine performance. Guys,,,, what is going on here???? I am puzzled? Expert ideas in this regard is highly respected!!!!

Edited March 20, 2014 by udayap

[The Don]

Dear Experts,

The land rover 110 of my friend was overhauled very recently. After around 3000 Kms done, the timing belt got busted (actually teeth got worn off) damaging some parts of the engine {push rods,etc}. The person who did the repair put the blame on the brand new timing belt (OEM) which was purchased from the agent. I contacted the agent and they too surprised on this matter. Giving a chance for factory defects, we bought the whole set of parts, including the timing belt and asked the same person to fix the problem. The disaster struck again, after around 600 km, the timing belt failed again.

Now i am sure that the timing belt is not the culprit. Whole problem is due to wrong done by the garage people. However, Few days ago, the vehicle was checked (externally) by the agent and they too said there is nothing unusual in vehicle noise or engine performance. Guys,,,, what is going on here???? I am puzzled? Expert ideas in this regard is highly respected!!!!

When this type of issue strikes, its important to zone in on the cause and work on the basis of probability. I'm not familiar with LR engines, and you haven't mentioned the engine code anyway.

But if you look at it logically, a few things are clear.

1. The timing belt in isolation is unlikely the culprit as it was brand new, but then with LR parts you can't completely be 100% sure.

2. Another component connected to the timing belt failt (jammed) causing the timing belt to jump or get damaged

The culprits are usually

1. Adjuster bearing

2. Water pump (bearings usually)

3. Cam shaft bearings

4. A foreign object in the path of the timing belt, or obstruction of the timing belt by the cover or something else....

thats all I could think of

[Davy]

To add to The Don's list and since you say that the teeth of the belt got worn off, could it be a faulty sproket that has damaged/worn out teeth? A tool coming into contact with a sproket might have damaged it during the repair. Slim chance, but still a possible.

Since the timing belt snapped the first time causing damage to the engine, the pullies in the timing belt assembly might be out of alignment causing excessive load on the belt at specific locations of pully rotation. I'm not exactly sure how this could be fixed apart from replacing the pullies and/or shafts.

Just my 2 cents.

[Rumesh88]

Just to add a point to what Don has explained above. If the belt teeth gets worn out within something like 600kms a quality issue with the belt is highly unlikely and that too twice to happen is almost impossible. IMO the pump pulley which has a play might have been slightly offset in relation to the cam pulley. If the belt teeth is damaged only on one side of each tooth this could have been the issue.

[udayap]

Big thanks for all who responded. The vehicle is 1987 landrover 110. The mechanic is telling that the water pump is not coupled with the timing belt.

He is suspecting the pulley of the injector pump, which stuck once in a while. I personally doubting on his claim. However, since we put the blame on him, he has replaced the injector pump, adjuster and also a timing belt (old stuff from his own store) and now having some test runs by him self.

Problem is we never know when the problem will come again.

I am doubting whether he has done something wrong when assembling the engine after the overhaul.....

some photos of the damaged belt

http://imageshack.com/a/img854/6125/zq5h.jpg

http://imageshack.com/a/img22/2300/g734.jpg

[HardHat]

while I cannot provide any further suggestion to what the members have posted above, I'm rather surprised, and I did not know, that Land Rover actually used timing belts instead of timing chains for the 110, which is supposed to be a vehicle designed for the toughest of conditions.

Edited March 25, 2014 by HardHat

[Rumesh88]

Big thanks for all who responded. The vehicle is 1987 landrover 110. The mechanic is telling that the water pump is not coupled with the timing belt.

By "pump" I meant the injector pump. My apologies. As I explained the injector pump pulley has three mounting screws which should be tightened last thus allowing the pulley teeth to adjust themselves with the belt (other two pulleys are fixed and so is the pump shaft but not its pulley). But this is only one possibility. Others could be the excessive wear in one or more of the pulleys, intermittent uneven load of the injector, misalignment of pulleys etc.

Hardhat is right. I have seen some third party solutions using additional gears to replace the belt. I cannot comment on their success but they are sure to make lot of noise.

[harshansenadhir]

the same happened in a known 406 diesel (not the HDI version) and what caused the t-belt to worn out was a crack in the crank pulley. This crack tends to bit the teething of the t-belt which cause it to give up prematurely.

best thing to do is closely examine all the teething geared pulleys involved in t-belt mechanism and if possible, get it tested by some reputed place where they can detect cracks (either using x-ray or uv) in cyclinder blocks. also check for possible worn out / damaged rollers in the mechanism.

[udayap]

Guys,

Thanks for your responses. Now we have driven around 5000 km after the change of the injector pump. Seems, the culprit was the injector pump which was serviced at a reputed place in Colombo.

[Davy]

Guess Rumesh88 was spot on about the pulley. Glad the issue seems to be resolved. Hope it stays this way.