1.6SR (100 hp) with broken cam belt
 

Hey guys. I hope some of you can help me with this quick question.

I may be picking up a 1997 Golf 3. The engine has a broken cam belt. How big is the risk of damages to the valves and pistons in this engine when the cam belt snaps?

problably some damage to some valves, depends a bit on when the belt broke. During idling( don't know if i use the correct term, my english isn't that good) or while driving.

I'm not entirely sure, but I thought that all 1600 & 1800 8v engines are non interferend.

If the price is right I would take the risk. It's a mechanic-friendly engine so to speak :)

The price for the car is 7000 kroner, which is about 880 Euro. Normal market price for a car like this is around 25000 kroner (3150 Euro) in this country, or to turn it the other way, 7000 kroner would get me a 10 year older Golf 2. That's why it looks interesting to me.

so basicly you have 2300 euro to find another engine IF, and only if, something on this one is damaged.

buy it, check it, fix it, drive it :)

Or, to put it the other way, I don't have the 3100 euro to buy one that is running properly. I'm (well, me and my girlfriend) are going to buy a house in about half a year, so I'm going to sell my Audi A6 and buy a cheap Golf to drive around in, something around 1200 Euro. That kind of money will normally get me something from 1985-90, for a running car with little rust, or something like a 95-97 model with some fixing to do.

Here's the car, btw: http://www.autodb.no/cgi-bin/car/detail.pl?nr=1953438

ahaha, yeh that's another way to put it.

Well, so I went to have a look at the car since it was located right outside the town I live in. Turns out that the kid who owns it had the engine repaired already, without editing his for sale ad. So, the car naturally was now in the 3000 euro range, and not of interest to me.

Thanks for all the replies, guys! :thumbup:

All important question: Did it suffer from valve or piston damage?

According to the seller, it didn't. A new cam belt was fitted and the engine started right up again. It didn't sound like there was any mechanical failure to the valves or valve train either.