Clio 3 (2011) 1.2 16v engine fail

[FishFart]

Hello everyone!

The other day my mother's Clio 3 (Night & Day Edition from 2011), 1.2 16v (75hp) had engine fail and nobody seem to know what the cause was.

The diagnostic was that the timing belt got "3 teeth" offset by itself and it just made pistons hit valves and messed them up etc. How and why did this happen??

The car has 25 000 miles (40 000 km), she is the first owner and has the car since 6 years, the car was bought new from the store. She drives it carefully, the car was never in crash etc.

The services were made all on time, timing belt was never changed or touched. I thought it might be because timing belt is "old" and perhaps should be changed, but mechanic told me that belt was not damaged in any way and was all good.

Another mechanic from Official Renault service told my mechanic (his friend) that they had one case exactly like this a couple of years ago (but timing belt was not to be changed, outdated, damaged etc.), but they never could figure out what was the cause of this fail, and why the timing belt "jumped".

Do you guys have any ideas or similar experiences?

Thanks!

 

[Foxspeed]

same belt for 6yrs....low miles but "old" didnt see many of these engines where i used to work because of that

 

[Merde Francais]

There’s always the possibility of an object getting stuck and causing this. My first thing to check would be pulleys and tensioners. Although the belt is fine, it could be one of these that has caused the issue.

 

[FishFart]

There’s always the possibility of an object getting stuck and causing this. My first thing to check would be pulleys and tensioners. Although the belt is fine, it could be one of these that has caused the issue.

Thanks guys!