Hi
This afternoon, coming back from work I heard a clank noise from the front of the car and then silence, followed by the loss of power. The engine has stopped and the engine light has come up as I was on the offside lane of M11, making my way through the busy rush hour traffic. I managed to coast, changing lanes and stopped on the hard shoulder and called the breakdown service. It didn't sound good when I tried to start the engine again. So I waited for the recovery. The verdict from the Recovery man after he looked under the bonnet of my Altezza was heart breaking - cambelt.
The car was towed to home, as it was very little chance to find a garage which was opened.
Now I am sitting wondering what the damage could be? Why the cambelt that has done 40K in 3 years fail all of the sudden?
Anyway, I am going to ring garage tomorrow and see what they have to say.
Just thought I d share this.

Cheers

Bad luck mate. They're an interference motor so I'd say you'll have a couple of bent valves at least. If you need parts that you can't get in the UK contact [email="nick@nst.co.nz"]nick@nst.co.nz[/email]

Out of interest what brand of belt was on it. You're not the first person to have a belt break on them but they're always aftermarket ones that do. Stick to genuine belts with these engines

Thanks mate,
it looks like the cause wasn't in the timing belt itself, but in a water pump. From what I can see so far the pulley of the waterpump had snapped off and caused the belt to shred to bits. You can see its cut through the plastic cover as well. I will need to take this cover off to see more.
I am being told by the JEM garage the same thing as you said; 3S-GE BEAMS are interference type engines and there could be more internal damage. There is a bit of good news maybe, its an automatic car and the valves are made of steal Alloy and bend under impact, not shatter like titanium ones.

There is only one way to find out. First, to replace pump and the belt and then try to turn the engine and see if it still OK. Thanks for the email, I already email Nick for parts.
Will keep you posted.

Here is the "bad boy" oil pump which caused the timing belt to get shredded to bits.
It is very peculiar to me how it managed to snap the end off completely.
The pulley has got a massive whole in it, with signs of overheated metal
[img]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2542/5852643861_fe223843ef.jpg[/img]
and the rotor drive bolt is completed shaven of by the pulley.
[img]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2595/5853196134_0721810ace.jpg[/img]

And yes, there are four valves that I can see bent, two exhaust valves in cylinder #1 and two intake valves from cylinder #2.
I will post pictures when I retrieved them
Cheers

a grand will get you a complete engine in ireland as they have thousands of altezzas

look up done deal.ie