406oc.co.uk

while driving home i heard a strange noise coming from the engine bay by the time i pulled over to look the aux belt had snapped, anyway as the journey was only 4 miles or so i decided to carry on gently but very soon after i got a very loud noise from the engine which sounded like a very loud diesel clatter, before i had chance to pull over again the noise went a lot worse and the car lost all power put was ticking over just about but no revs etc, does anybody know what this could be as i wouldn't have thought the aux belt going could cause this kind of issue, the recovery guy said he'd never seen anything like it, please help this is very confusing

The only thing I can think of, without seeing the car, is that maybe a piece of belt has got into the timing belt casing and allowed the belt to jump teeth, but it's just guesswork without seeing the car.

I've had this problem a few times in the past.

Are you sure the crankshaft pulley is still attached? It's not unknown for them to come off completely, leaving the sheared bolt stuck in the crankshaft.
Fingers crossed its something simple though...

It's common for a failing aux belt to kill the cambelt on these. What is sounds like is that the cam belt has jumped a tooth or too and now the timing is way out, the hidious noise and lack of power is due to the engine firing at the wrong time.

Pop the cam belt off, time the engine up and refit it (or fit a new one, only a tenner) it should be fine.


OR it could be the electrical connector to the timing injector has come lose (the xud in the 406 is semi electronic, meaning there is more to go wrong), check the grey connector by the left hand engine mount. Does the rev counter still work ok?

thanks for the tips guys, i will hopefully get chance to check it out tomorrow (working strange shifts at mo), a guy at work mentioned the crank pulley as well , that does seem to be fine though thank god, yes rev counter was still working, but the strange thing is its the 2nd aux belt in 2.5k miles, the 1st one was the smaller one , the guy at gsf was very certain it was right but when i phoned the main dealer i was told there were 2 one is 15mm longer, fitted that and it lasted only 100 miles or so which is bit concerning as its a clean break ie no fraying or rub marks

o well had a look today and noticed bits of belt wrapped around the cam by the sprocket,once stripped al the covers off i put the crank bolt bac in to turn the engine to line it up,it was then i noticed it had broke the centre cam carrier and the cam itself is snapped in 2 places , between 2 and 3 , i am fearing this is due to possibly valves hitting pistons although all the lifters seem un marked, is it woth putting a 2nd hand cam in to try it rather than disturbing the head just to try it or is this rip to this head?

Ouch!!! Looks like aux belt maintenance is as essential as the cam belt!

Can't help with your question though, as I am a n00b!

bigblue2 wrote:o well had a look today and noticed bits of belt wrapped around the cam by the sprocket,once stripped al the covers off i put the crank bolt bac in to turn the engine to line it up,it was then i noticed it had broke the centre cam carrier and the cam itself is snapped in 2 places , between 2 and 3 , i am fearing this is due to possibly valves hitting pistons although all the lifters seem un marked, is it woth putting a 2nd hand cam in to try it rather than disturbing the head just to try it or is this rip to this head?

Can't do any harm to try.

I thought that is what had happened, didn't quite expect a broken cam with it still running.

Chances are that you have some bent valves, but you may get lucky.