CITROEN C4 GRAND PICASSO CAM BELT FAILURE

[SILENTSLEIGH2026]

Hi everyone hope you are all well i'm new to the forum and im hopeful to obtain some help regarding a issue with my family's Citroen C4 Grand Picasso 2016 1.6 diesel

Its on around 103k and last week while driving along very slow at around 5mph the engine completely cut out and died. It coasted to the side of the road and I got the car recovered

No noise or warning just cut dead

RAC Recovered the car and removed the timing belt cover and said its snapped and we would be looking at £2k + to fix it

Called a few garages locally to be told the same over £2k to repair all this without any inspection on what damage has been caused if any

Genuinely from peoples experience with these cars whats the chances we got away without any major damage ?

I have explained everything to a local mobile mechanic who's tonight stated he wants to fit a new belt and water pump etc he's said he will not fit any new parts until he's certain no engine damage has been caused and if there is engine damage he will only charge half the labour cost which would be £180

Could I have peoples opinions please we don't want to just waste money but not sure what to do going forward

The quote was £790 for 6 hours labour and parts

Thank you all

[mickthemaverick]

Whereabouts in England are you?

[SILENTSLEIGH2026]

Whereabouts in England are you?

Milton Keynes

[mickthemaverick]

Then you have some expert members close by. Hopefully one of them will answer your post tomorrow. Good luck

[SILENTSLEIGH2026]

Then you have some expert members close by. Hopefully one of them will answer your post tomorrow. Good luck

Thank you I appreciate it

[RichardW]

Belt failure on this engine is very common, and usually doesn't result in valve damage - but it's very likely to have broken some rockers and spun lobes on the cam. So you have to strip off the belt, cam and rockers and assess from there. If the rest of the car is in reasonable condition it will be worth repairing, as long as the head doesn't have to come off. I would get the mobile mech to strip the belt and cam carrier off to see how many broken rockers and check for valve damage then take it from there.

[SILENTSLEIGH2026]

Belt failure on this engine is very common, and usually doesn't result in valve damage - but it's very likely to have broken some rockers and spun lobes on the cam. So you have to strip off the belt, cam and rockers and assess from there. If the rest of the car is in reasonable condition it will be worth repairing, as long as the head doesn't have to come off. I would get the mobile mech to strip the belt and cam carrier off to see how many broken rockers and check for valve damage then take it from there.

Thanks Richard that sounds like a much better plan ill ask the mechanic to do that instead thank you

[CitroJim]

Indeed, a neighbour of mine had a cambelt break on his C4 Pic. The cam lobes had spun and a few rockers were damaged...

All replaced, along with a new belt and all has been well since. And not such a bad job to do...

I'm soon to replace my cambelt - hopefully before it lets go. My C3 Pic. (same engine) is currently on 62K...

[SILENTSLEIGH2026]

Just a little update to this we really struggled finding a reliable mobile mechanic in Milton Keynes to pop and diagnose whats needed

I personally live in South Wales and with the car being at my parents in Milton Keynes it's been hard to sort stuff out to help them.

The only diagnosis we have had was from the garage that the car was recovered to by the RAC they said the Cam belt had snapped nothing more than that and would be £2500 +

Anyway we arranged to get the car brought down to me yesterday on a low loader its now here and we stripped the engine down a little yesterday before it got dark, We took the cam belt cover off to find the belt still very much attached and not snapped as the garage had told them

I then found what looks like a single tooth of the belt but everything is attached but it is very slightly slack

We are going to attempt to try and get the rocker cover off today to see where we stand but from what we have found so far whats my chances we have got away without any major damage ?

I have my own mobile mechanic that I personally use on my car but I wanted to save money stripping it as much as possible to see what damage has been caused if that makes sense, The plan was that if any damage was found with the lobes and rockers etc I would then just get him to sort it and then fit a new belt and water pump so fingers crossed it now wont be such a expensive repair

Would appreciate any thoughts thank you

[Duffy3074]

It’ll depend on how much has actually slipped and gone out of time
You could time it all up, replace the belt and turn it over by hand and see how it feels, if it turns over smoothly outwith the high spots of normal compression, I’d fire it up and see what happens
The fact that it died a death on the road doesn’t fill me with hope but you’ve nothing to lose by doing this and a lot to gain if it works

[RichardW]

Keep going and get the bottom cover off, then you can get the pins in and see how far out the timing is. If you only have the top cover off so far, you may well find that 8-10 teeth are missing around the crank pulley when you get the bottom off.... If, however, it's only 1 tooth out, then good chance you can just reset it and put a new belt on. Fingers crossed!

[windy1603]

As above if the belt snapped there is a good chance of broken rockers and spun lobes as the engine would have still been turning with the valves stationary (i had a water pump seize on my 2.0 BlueHDI it took out 10 rockers and I assume cams) the good news is FA1 do a complete camshaft kit (which includes new rockers and lifters) for around £260 add on the cost of a new cam belt kit and labour i would thing around £700-800 to get it back on the road and it should be good for another 100K

[SILENTSLEIGH2026]

Mobile Mechanic came out today stripped the top of the engine off to inspect and found 1 x single rocker broken no other damage found other than to the belt he is saying he wants to replace all 8 rockers and the cam shaft and put on a new cam belt and water pump and finish off with a oil and filter change said it will be around 4-4.5 hours work at £70 a hour and around the £1k mark with parts

[RichardW]

Sounds about right, likely the lobe has moved on the cam, and would you want to risk one of the other rockers breaking up if it has a crack in it?