My timing belt blew on my '98 Dodge Avenger the other day....

Question

I took it to the mechanic yesterday who gave me a $350 estimate for parts and labor. He calls me today and says he changed the belt but the car isn't running great and what happened was that when the timing belt blew there wasn't enough clearance and it damaged other parts of the engine. He said something about bent valves and the car only running on two cylinders(or two less cylinders) now. Anyway, my new estimate is an extra $1,200 to get the thing sent out to get some sort of machining along with whatever extra stuff he said he had to do to it.

Does any of this sound right or should I get my car out of there and go get another estimate? The guy seems alright but it's my first time doing business with him and he's kind of got me by the tail right now. I mean, does $1,550 sound even remotely close here?

Answer 1

The "clearance" the mechanic is talking about is the space between the pistons and the valves.  When the belt broke, the camshaft stopped turning, and the valves just stopped moving where they were.  The pistons kept going up and down though, and that's bad.  A lot of modern engines have to have that timing right, because the pistons and valves share space with each other; lose timing and they bump into each other.  Bent valves at best, cracked block, pistons and other stuff at worst.  

Yeah, his estimate is on - and may be low.

For my money, I don't believe what any manufacturer says - I replace timing belts at 60K miles, never longer.  Honda recommended 105K and a lot of folks got burned, so now I say 60K, no matter what it is.  I've never heard of a belt dying younger than that.