Andres el Brujo

New Member
Good morning everyone.

I had a problem with my hypo (Freelander 1.8 k series), I was driving in a highway from Busan to Seoul about 100 km/h @ 3000 rpm, and suddenly heard some noises inside the hood, as if a belt flied away. I turned on the hazards, turn off the engine and try stop the car by the side road. In the moment stuff happened to quickly that I cannot exactly remember if I first pressed the break, and then stop the engine, or the other way round, but the car ran out of brakes. So I waited till the speed drop, and stop it with the side brake. Checked inside the hood and effectively the alternator belt and the steering pump belt were not there anymore. The alternator belt got destroyed into pieces, and the pump one I found it somewhere inside the hood. Stopped the car, was 200km far from home, nowhere to go, so I towed it to a safe place, disconnect battery and continued by bus. The next week I bought the new belts, tensors and go to the place where the hypo was, installed the belts, connect the battery again, and here starts the thing. The engine is not gonna start any more.

Symptoms:

1. When you try to start the engine is going to turn, but SOUNDS LIKE IT’S NOT COMPRESSING AIR (blown engine sound)

2. In the instrument panel tuku tuku… tuku tuku… sounds (don’t know what it means)

Things that I did check:

1. Timing belt is tense (couldn’t check all of it since with the tools I got with me I couldn’t remove all the bolts of the case)

2. Battery is charged

As we know, the alternator belt is not driving any essential service of the engine, cooling water, oil pump, fans… etc. So I don’t think there’s a reason for the engine to get overheated or a lubrication fail or so on. If the engine sound was a normal starting sound, I would thing that I have an electric problem and the engine is not starting because of no injection or the coil of the glow plugs is not working. But sounds really like if there’s no compression in the engine. After getting frustrated, asked for a tow for next Saturday to Busan which will cost me around 400 bucks or more… and got a bus home. While going in the bus I started thinking:

1. If the engine is not blown, the only reason for it to do that sound is if there’s something blocking the admission manifold, or the stepper is not working and the admission is actually blocked. (didn’t check it)

2. When the belt break, pieces of the belt got into the timing belt pulley and shifted it some slots so that the timing does not match any more and that’s why there’s not compression. But it seemed properly tensed when I checked.

3. Engine is really blown? But why?... now that I think about it, was it that I pressed the brake before I stopped the engine, and there was no vacuum in the servo?... or was it that I stopped the engine when I heard the noise and then pressed the brake? Don’t really remember, everything happened to quickly and it didn’t seem to be a big problem, just alternator belt gone…

Have no clue, any idea of what could happened?

Thanks for your time.
 
Don't own a hippo so just guessing here, but its possible that when the belt let go and started flailing about, it probably took out some essential wiring for cam or crank position sensors or some other critical component that could be inhibiting startup.
 
Hi, thanks for your reply, and for the spelling correction lol. I didnt actually check the sensors but i find out in the manual that all the sensors are the at the opposite side of the engine, not the belt site, I will check them next weekend when I go back to where i left the car. Thanks.
 
Found the problem... The pieces of the alternator belt got into the timming belt... Conclusion, the timming belt didnt break but shifted some steps so timming is not matching any more and got many valves bent. What a lucky day lol, wanna cry.
 
Is the timing belt not inside a casing, so that nothing can get to it?
 
It often happens on k series, the alternator belt finds a way to get under timing belt, very important to change those belts before they get to breaking stage, as you have found out the hard way
 
It often happens on k series, the alternator belt finds a way to get under timing belt, very important to change those belts before they get to breaking stage, as you have found out the hard way
So timing belt not in a case then?
 
20170624_173441.jpg
Indeed the alternator belt gets inside the timing belt case even with all the protections and plastics on...
 

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