Hi there my skodas cam belt snapped new years eve. i was just looking for some advice as to wether or not it would be worth getting this repaired the car has done 150000 miles but has been a great car otherwise. also im not sure what damage has been done or how i can find out?? also any ideas on repair costs .

Thanks sean.

Start by taking the cam cover off. If the camshaft's broken, then the engine is basically scrap so unless you can find a good condition unit in a scrappie costs will be more than the car's worth.

Out of interest, do you know if it has a metal impellor water pump fitted?

Sorry but im not realy mechanicaly minded. but thanks for yiur lnfo is it a big job to taje the head off?

Sorry dint even know what the cam cover is lol.

where are you ??

Sean, removing the cam cover and the head are 2 separate jobs.

When you open the bonnet, you'll see a big slab of black plastic with "1.9 TDi" and a Skoda badge on it, and the dipstick handle (bright orange) sticking through it. First you need to remove that, so pull out the dipstick and put it somewhere safe (flat and cleanish; a newspaper somwhere that can't get stood on will do), pull out the 3 plastic circles with a flat screwdriver, undo the 3 bolts that reveals and lift off the cover.

This reveals the engine. There's another cover with some bolts round the edges of it. That is the cam cover. Undo all of those bolts and lift it off. Under that there's a shaft running along the top of the engine with 8 thicker bits (the cams) on it. If that's broken in 2, then at minimum you need the head rebuilding which is not a job you'll know how to do or I can describe in sufficient detail. You may also need 1 or 2 new pistons and possibly new connecting rods and/or crankshaft, which is why I say that at this point you'd be best just fitting a second-hand engine!

Once I have removed the engine cover I tend to stick the dipstick back down the hole (prevents unwanted things from falling down there.....)

Thanks again i will have a go at this at the week end and will post my findings. I also keep hearing about safe engines is there any chance this could be a safe engine??

In this context, a "safe engine" means one where the pistons can't contact the valve heads. You might also have heard the term "non-interference engine" which is the same thing.

Unfortunately, all diesels are "interference engines" where the pistons can contact open valve heads, and if this happens it can push the valve up into the camshaft with a force proportionate to the mass of the car. Wikipedia explanation of how a diesel (and most petrol) engine works http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4-stroke

Sorry to cnn tuning im in hall green birmingham