[HoopsUK]

Hello fellow alfaholics
I've had the misfortune of a broken alternator belt on my 2.4 jtdm 159 this week and wanted to share my experience whilst collating any info from others who might have had this happen.
The car had 194k kms when I bought it 6 months ago and was overdue a belt change. I bought it and changed the cam belt, waterpump, serpentine belt and all other major service items myself. I left the alternator belt as it looked fine and is difficult to change having no tensioner and being a stretch belt.
More the fool I am now.

Anyway, I haven't seen any other threads where someone experienced this. The car won't start and the implication is that the cam belt has either broken or jumped a couple of teeth. When the alt belt failed I was pulling away from traffic lights and the car came to an abrupt halt.
I have had it taken to cilberti in Osbourne park, wa. Their mechanics take the whole front end off the 159 to change the stretch belt, which is interesting and labour consuming as the radiators are removed all to access the alternator.

I am letting them run with their method for now but will probably take the car back if they suggest the valves are bent and cam belt gone as I have read that the system is designed to fail at the lifters rather than bend valves.... If indeed the cam belt has been affected.

Can anyone explain why the 2.4jtdm might not start in the event of only an alternator belt failure?

I'm simultaneously running a thread on Aus Alfa for this.

 

[MalcQV]

No idea but I'm curious myself.
Hope you get it sorted and for as little outlay as possible, especially as you did all that previous work yourself.

 

[HoopsUK]

Thank you. One could say I deserve it. I should have done it with the others and now I will pay the price. Anyway, let this be a lesson to other home mechanics like me.
I ve probably changed between 100 and 120 cam belts, chains and tensioners over my life. I ve had two alfas before and this was the first time I d encountered the stretch belt design. It seemed like alot of trouble for a little two pulley non critically timed belt.
Incidentally, the car has been driven about 4000km and 4 months on its new cam and serpentine belts that I installed.

 

[crimsonbadger]

I've had car like this in my garage. Alternator belt got into crankshaft pulley after snapping and caused the cam belt to loose 2-3 teeth. Result? all exhaust valves gone.

 

[HoopsUK]

Thanks badger. This sounds like what has happened to me. Oh dear. Not looking forward to the call from the garage!

 

[HoopsUK]

Incidentally, did you take the head off or follow this broken cam belt procedure?

http://www.alfaworkshop.co.uk/alfa_JTDm_cam_belt_broken.shtml

 

[crimsonbadger]

we just measured compression and it was gone on all cylinders. We wanted to replace belt and rocker but because compression was gone on all cylinders and we found only 2 rockers broken, we've decided to remove head.

 

[MalcQV]

I've had car like this in my garage. Alternator belt got into crankshaft pulley after snapping and caused the cam belt to loose 2-3 teeth. Result? all exhaust valves gone.

I believe Peugeots suffered with snapped aux belts jamming up.

 

[HoopsUK]

What was the approx man hrs and parts cost badger, if you don't mind me asking.
Looks like I could be whipping a head off if my 159 has gone the same way as I don't fancy shelling out for 15 odd hrs of labour......

 

[HoopsUK]

Does anyone else have a broken belt 2.4jtdm tale to share? I will post pictures of mine as the story develops

 

[HoopsUK]

Quick update to this one chaps.

Stretch belt had failed but still had a string left around
Failed section of the stretch belt was ingested by the crank drive pulley for the cam belt.
Cam belt jumped several teeth
All rockers broken, as they are designed to do

New rockers, cam belt and stretch belt required.

An expensive mistake

 

[MalcQV]

Flippin eck. Happened to my mates Peugeot 306 a few years back. Sounds exactly the same. Worth having replaced every couple of years I'd say :thinking:

 

[Chipmik]

Been there, done it....

Happened at idle with 2 mins left of moving caravan 10 meters before all belts/waterpump shoudl be replaced...Now whats the chances of that

Had to drill out the belt-parts as they were so compressed they was impossible to pull out by hand / any tool...

No rockers broken, but have had a minor since then, with no real pull below 18-2000 RPM, just no clue as to why, since good compression on all cyl´s & cabelt is aligned with tools :-(

BTW HoopsUK...Totally unnecessary to take of front to change belt, although its THE worst thing if ever tried to change on any car...Would change cambelt 5 times if i could jump this terrible design :-( :-D