1995 Citroen ZX from Malaysia - Comments

A few days back I sent my car to replace the alternator/power steering/compressor belt. After running for 10 km the car make noise and I checked that the belt had shred apart. The belt had turn to strings and pieces. The engine also stopped. There are also pieces of the torn belt in the timing belt compartment. The car was towed to a workshop and the mechanic confirmed that the head valves had bent due to the torn belts in the timing belt compartment. The whole engine head had to be dismantled to make the repair. I had to spend $1200 to make the repair. I think the belt system design is bad.

Belting System Poorly Designed.

Cylinder Valve Easily Damaged.

Replacing the belt and after 10km it breaks. Strange to blame it on the car and not a mechanic who has done a bad job.

I drove an ZX in Malaysia for over 300,000kms and never had a problem with the timing belt. I used authorised service centre to service the car and changed the belts every 70,000 kms. From your entry it shows that you got the car around 170,000 kms... did it come with a service history? It should show when the timing belt was last replaced.

It is expected that your valves would be damaged/bent if the belt broke anyway.

What the writer told is that the air-cond/alternator/power steering belt that turn to string and pieces. The timing belt do not deteriorate. But the pieces from the air-cond belt entangled get into the way of the timing belt. That causes it to run afoul and causes the cylinder head valve to bent/disfigure. I have heard this kind of occurence before too. This can happen to any owner. Bear in mind that the air cond belt is very thin and slight misalignment of the pulleys can run causing the belt to be eaten away.

Improvement can be made by making the timing belt compartment impenetrable from foreign materials. The pulley and grooves could be made more reliable and should allow a thicker belt.

The timing belt compartment IS impenetrable and covered. The only reason that I can think of for the aircond/alternator belt to have caused a timing belt failure is that the cover for the timing belt was either replaced incorrectly or not replaced at all.

I own two ZXes in Malaysia and I have, on two occasions, had the alternator belting spliced due to a loose alternator bolt which was not fitted back correctly. It never affected the timing belt at all. I blame the mechanic who fitted it and not the car.

And you can't blame a car for having easily bent valves due to a broken/jammed timing belt. Any car that has a broken/jammed timing belt will have bent valves (depending on circumstances)

"The timing belt compartment IS impenetrable and covered. The only reason that I can think of for the aircond/alternator belt to have caused a timing belt failure is that the cover for the timing belt was either replaced incorrectly or not replaced at all."

And so where exactly does the auxiliary belt get its drive from? Every engine I've worked on is driven from the crankshaft... where the timing belt also runs.

Aux belt wiping out the cam belt is a common fault on French cars.