Q: Serpentine belt tearing apart by pebble & pieces of it getting inside timing belt, motor destroyed
Backpacking in Wa. Cascade mtns. I came out and drove car down good dirt road towards town. Later motor lurched, shuddered and stopped completely blown. Just out of warranty took car to Ford. Ford said "a pebble (they showed me the pebble I supposedly picked up ) broke the serpentine belt and small pieces of it got into the timing belt area quickly destroyed timing belt causing a totally blown motor"... before I could get the car over to the side of the fwy. Is this car a delicate little toy car?I thought the timing belt area was protected from outside debris? I've fixed cars (reluctantly lol) but NEVER seen this? Asked a number of motorhead friends and my independent mechanicl, another independent mechanic whether this was possible? You usually get the "ANYTHING is possible" thing but "NO, in 30 years of work on (Fords, cars, hotrods, small Fords etc etc) I've NEVER seen that". I asked if they'd ever heard of that and no was the answer again. Friends say it sounds very suspicious.
My car has 52000 miles.
My car has an automatic transmission.
Hi there. I agree with you - this doesn’t pass the ’smell test’. The only way for debris to enter the engine is through the throttle body. Since the throttle body inlet is protected and covered by an air intake on your Ford Fiesta, I highly doubt that this is the source of your problems.
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