Hi all.

A buddy has a 2001 S40 with a turbo engine, I think he said it's 1.9l. Anyway, he is off on a road trip and the engine died. He has the car at a shop and they say that the tensioner bearings failed, throwing off the timing. Good news is no bent valves, bad news is a $800 dollar repair bill.

Has anyone heard of tensioner failures? 52k miles seems a bit early for timing belt issues.

Thanks.

aj

hi yes it does seem strange,the tensioner should last around 120,000 but for the belt to break or move enough to stop the engine is usually a big big bill with bent valves and sometimes a comlete engine.
The only things could be is a faulty tensioer or more likely someone has overtensioned it,which although they tension is automatic it is possible to tension it wrong in the first place.
I like to change belts at 60,000 no more and the tensioner every second belt,also the water pump is anothet item worth changing.
The prat who first thought of driving the water pump with the timing belt should be hung lol