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Hi,

I bought a used car in Aug 2017 with cambelt replaced at 114,000 km. This April the engine died while driving without any warning (visual or otherwise). Car has been serviced regularly and there were no warnings prior to the incident. I had the vehicle towed to my mechanic who confirmed the cambelt snapped and most likely needs a new engine. I contacted the used car dealer seeing as the belt is supposed to last a 100,000 km. They took the vehicle in and two months later i receive an email saying their supplier had done the initial replacement so their representatives have inspected the belt.

To quote their representative "Based on the actual belt collected from the vehicle, it looks as if something went wrong inside the engine, and that’s the reason why the timing belt snapped. We checked the dipstick and found that the engine was totally overfilled with oil".

Based on the above statement, the dealer now says they will replace the engine but at my expense.

My mechanic denies that an overfilled engine has anything to do with timing belt failure. Says symptoms of this should have been either burnt smell or black smoke, none of which were visible/present before this incident.

I guess, what i am asking is "Can too much engine oil cause timing belt failure". Also should i be pursue the dealer or the workshop that did the replacement, even though i bought it from the dealer and it's been 2 years.

I would agree that over filling an engine with oil often results in smoking from the tailpipe.
I would have an independent mobile engineer assess the damage to the belt and the other cambelt components of the engine to give you a clear understanding of what has gone wrong, you can then uses this report to determine the cause, and whom is at fault.

Hi Ian, thank you.

Is there anyone that you can recommend.