Ive heard horror stories about broken timing belts. Whats the straight Scoop?
The biggest issue with failed timing belts on Fiats is the catastrophic damage that can occur. When the engine is running with an intact belt, the valves move up and down in time with the pistons, and the two objects miss each other hundreds of times per second. When a timing belt fails on a Fiat, the cams quickly spin to a stop, and the pistons keep going. If any of the valves stop in the down position (statistically likely, almost guaranteed) the piston will come up and deliver it a terrible whack. At minimum, this means bent valves, and at its worst can knock a hole in the piston. Or, if the belt breaks at high revs, the shattered bits of Valve will bounce around in the combustion chamber, beating the Cylinder head to death.
