I have never posted here before, and I couldn't find a search function so I have to ask. Today I was driving my 87 maxima. I just bought it a week ago, really nice car. Anyway i heard a noise over my blaring factory radio . I turned the radio off and to my horror it was pinging So I look at my temp guage and its about 7/8 of teh way up, just short of the line before the last line. So I went to pull to the side of the road and the car died. I tried to restart it and it wouldnt so I got it towed home. Anyway after some trouble shooting it didnt take me long to figure out the timing belt broke. SO to my question...
Do these things have interference motors? I am sure my luck is not good engough that everything is fine. How much damage did I do? How much is it going to cost to fix(I can do all work myself except for machine work)?

When the belft broke the engine was running at about 1500 rpm.

Thanks in advance for the help guys

 

yes we do have interferance motors, and as far as the damage I am not sure...you will probably have to pull everything apart to find out or just drop a new (junkyard) motor in.

 

I think we need to announce on the 6:00 news that everyone who owns a 2nd gen max needs to replace their timing belt every 60,000 miles. That this is regular maintenance in a car.

I'd say start looking for a new motor.

Dan

 

Even if so, these belts can break regardless how often you change them too. Besides he has had the car for a week, so he probably doesn't know how well the car has been maintained or not.

 

The car had good maintenance records... and the belt was supposedly replaced about 30,000 miles ago?

So... what do you think would happen if I replaced the belt, yanked the heads and only replaced the bent valves? I dont think there is any piston damage, unless these engines are no good, but I have rebuilt plenty of late model nissans and they are nice. So... what do you think? Thanks for the help guys

 

If anything, the pistons generally go unscaved. It's the valves that are usually toast. So that fix should work pretty well for you.

S

 

I dunno, I had a timing belt lose about 5 or 6 teeth one time around the crankshaft sprocket for no apparent reason. I dunno if something was siezed or what. after I replaced it, I never had the problem again. go figure. VWs for ya.

 

Which VW did you have?

S

 

had an '87 VW Fox with a 1.8 and a conversion to a 5-speed tranny (manual 4-speed was all that was available). paid $400 for the car cos I was desparate for transportation after I wrecked my 89 Sentra (it was that very car that made me believe that Nissans are indestructable). The fox wasn't a bad car but it had over 200k and a reconstructed title. it sat in my garage for a while but it needed a lot of work that I didn't have money for. I accidentally busted the shifter linkage going into first and never had the resources to fix it. the ECU burned up one time when I tried to jump-start it, but I pulled one from my friend's 84 scirocco that he wrecked when he took it field-hopping . Replaced that and the t-belt that was stripped (VW and their damn metric allen-head bolts!) and she ran pretty good, except the exhaust had fallen completely off from the manifold. so even though the engine was running, it wasn't drivable. I'd run the engine but the generator light stayed on and I had to keep the clutch in cos it was stuck in 3rd. I kept sayin I'd fix it but eventually I just had it taken away cos it was burying me it could have been fixed up.... ohh well, my blazer is the new project now. at least it's a 4x4.

btw, anyone know where I can get a replacement headliner for my 94 sentra? I tore the whole thing down cos the cloth was sagging, and I'm a fairly tall person and the sentra's a fairly small car. it got annoying. I need the foam backing and everything. the local nissan dealer wants $150 for it, but then again they wanted about $60 for a replacement battery cable and $20 for a thermostat. I don't like getting raped.

Dan