What happens when a timing belt breaks?

What happens if my timing belt breaks? Welcome to Mercie J, where compassion and craftsmanship come together. I'm Rick Smith, Master Certified Technician.

So inside your engine you have pistons and they're basically a cylinder and they move up and down and you have valves in the head that open and close. Now what the timing belt does is it controls the timing of where the Pistons at. So if the piston is coming down, it opens and then it closes and and it controls that timing. So if the timing belt breaks what can happen is now a valve stays open and the Piston comes up and down.

Now if your engine is designed for clearance, the only thing that you're going to experience is your dead on the side of the road and you got to get the car towed. If your engine doesn't have clearance, then it's kind of a bad day. What will happen is the piston will come up, it will strike the valve which looks a like a golf tee upside down, and if it does that it can break or bend the valve. So now you're talking major engine repair. So this why it is important to replace your timing belt typically about 90,000 miles intervals. So I hope it's been informational to you and until next time, safe travels and blessings to you.