Help, Xc60 new engine??

[dockot]

A year ago I gave my son my old 2010 XC60 2.5D
All good till last week when he was returning down the M11 and 2 miles short of Birchanger engine gave up , and he limped to a stop in the shade of a bridge,
Waited there for 3.5 hrs… with wife and three yr old…RAC not much help, were unable to provide a flat bed, so he had to find a local one and pay out £250 to be carried home to Clapham.
The consensus seems that one belt went and then upset the other belt and now a new Engine required!! Not the cam belt… that was renewed a year or so ago.
He had another RAC mechanic out today who could not get the engine to turn over and said engine b….d
So does this sound feasible? and second , can anyone recommend a good Volvo man in S London or an engine replacement guy that won’t cost a fortune. Or are we just heading to the scrap heap.
Son can’t afford a replacement but we could manage a couple of grand if that was doable….
I had a good guy here in Norfolk but he has retired!

[XC90Mk1]

Originally Posted by dockot

A year ago I gave my son my old 2010 XC60 2.5D
All good till last week when he was returning down the M11 and 2 miles short of Birchanger engine gave up , and he limped to a stop in the shade of a bridge,
Waited there for 3.5 hrs… with wife and three yr old…RAC not much help, were unable to provide a flat bed, so he had to find a local one and pay out £250 to be carried home to Clapham.
The consensus seems that one belt went and then upset the other belt and now a new Engine required!! Not the cam belt… that was renewed a year or so ago.
He had another RAC mechanic out today who could not get the engine to turn over and said engine b….d
So does this sound feasible? and second , can anyone recommend a good Volvo man in S London or an engine replacement guy that won’t cost a fortune. Or are we just heading to the scrap heap.
Son can’t afford a replacement but we could manage a couple of grand if that was doable….
I had a good guy here in Norfolk but he has retired!

If you Google Volvo D5 Aux Belt Cambelt you will see that there is some history to this. If the Aux belt does go (and Volvo have halved it’s service life) then it runs adjacent to the Cambelt. Generally it’s rare for the Aux belt to fail when adhering to the milage claimed (37.5K I believe with idler changed at 75k - or there about, I could be slightly out).

However, if the Aux belt fails it generally gets ingested by the Cambelt (irrespective of how new the Cambelt is). The Cambelt then jumps teeth on the sprocket and as the D5 is interference generally the engine is a write off.

With a belt failed the outcome described by your mechanic is what happens generally.

Sorry to hear this.

[Tannaton]

Sounds like the auxiliary belt has failed which has a propensity to foul the cambelt and take that out as well, this usually results in a destroyed cylinder head.

If that's the case (and easy to diagnose) it can be repaired by replacing the cylinder head but in practice it's cheaper and easier to fit a replacement second hand engine. That's not simple though as most mechanics don't like fitting second hand engine's as it leads to disagreements if it's not right.

Or you could sell it as "spares repairs" as is (on e-bay).

[SnineT]

How on earth does an aux belt manage to get into the cambelt area? I'm asking btw not denying it happens, also who designed that gem

Regarding your problem though, ask the son did he hear it go bang or did the car simply cut out and stop? a lot of these AA RAC guys jump to the worst case without really knowing much about the multitude of cars they attend,

An old departed mate actually stopped and helped an AA guy one day, the AA guy was stumped but my mate had the car going again in about 3 minutes flat, the AA then wrote to him to thank him and offer him a job, he declined it as he already had his own pro garage and was busy enough anyway.

[Easington]

Aux belt interval is 54k miles

[dockot]

Thanks All for that, son says he drove out of Birchanger then after a mile or two battery failure warning appeared and he lost power but no noises, glided to stop and managed to turn engine over on battery several times before everything stopped, then a yellow engine light came on. However back in London a second visit from RAC could not get engine to turn over and the secondary damage to cam belt was postulated. Had a quote for engine replacement around £4500…..
So I reckon a small chance could be that belt rupture caused electronic shutdown rather than catastrophe…
So probably worth getting it to Volvo for at least a diagnostic check and read of the codes.
However have no knowledge of SW London dealers and or specialists

[XC90Mk1]

Originally Posted by Easington

Aux belt interval is 54k miles

Yes I did double check and my initial post was wrong, thanks for posting that up.

Do we know when the Aux tensioner interval is?

[Lancee]

Originally Posted by dockot

Thanks All for that, son says he drove out of Birchanger then after a mile or two battery failure warning appeared and he lost power but no noises, glided to stop and managed to turn engine over on battery several times before everything stopped, then a yellow engine light came on. However back in London a second visit from RAC could not get engine to turn over and the secondary damage to cam belt was postulated. Had a quote for engine replacement around £4500…..
So I reckon a small chance could be that belt rupture caused electronic shutdown rather than catastrophe…
So probably worth getting it to Volvo for at least a diagnostic check and read of the codes.
However have no knowledge of SW London dealers and or specialists

Bless you for your optimism !

[Easington]

Originally Posted by XC90Mk1

Yes I did double check and my initial post was wrong, thanks for posting that up.

Do we know when the Aux tensioner interval is?

Apparently 108k but I had mine changed at the same time as the belt

[SnineT]

Originally Posted by dockot

Thanks All for that, son says he drove out of Birchanger then after a mile or two battery failure warning appeared and he lost power but no noises, glided to stop and managed to turn engine over on battery several times before everything stopped, then a yellow engine light came on. However back in London a second visit from RAC could not get engine to turn over and the secondary damage to cam belt was postulated. Had a quote for engine replacement around £4500…..
So I reckon a small chance could be that belt rupture caused electronic shutdown rather than catastrophe…
So probably worth getting it to Volvo for at least a diagnostic check and read of the codes.
However have no knowledge of SW London dealers and or specialists

I'd get a mobile mechanic in to look at it, one who knows Volvo's and one who won't stand there scratching his head after trying to start it multiple times, if you can or haven't already get the cam cover off of it and have a look for damage then spin the engine slowly on the crankshaft bolt listening for metal to metal sounds and stopping immediately if you do hear one or feel hydraulic resistance as you're winding it round, if it's as bad as their suggesting your son should've heard a winding up sound at the very least followed by loud clatter as valves hit pistons etc, avoid RAC, AA, Green Flog etc they are recovery experts who carry a charger and a gallon of juice basically, most of them are not mechanic's as such,

As for a Volvo dealer near him try Volvo Cars in Slough.