Cambelt Snapped

[Sammie]

Hi,

I drive a '99 toyota yaris which i have had from new. My oil light has been flickering on & off but after checking the oil it was fine. Yesterday the malfunction indicator light came on and then my car just died. It has been towed to the garage where they seem to think the cambelt has snapped. Can someone give me a heads up on the worse case scenario.....what damage could have been done....how much will it cost etc.

Thanks

[Madasafish]

No cambelt.

Chain driven engine.

[Sammie]

No cambelt.

Chain driven engine.

So could that be good news for me or bad then?

[Hartside]

If the oil light has been flickering, it could be down to low oil pressure, i.e not being pumped around the engine sufficiently well. Worst case you had a partial sieze, or you have starved the chain of lubrication leading to failure. High cost to repair unfortunately

[RAV4Len]

Do they not have a low oil level light?

Or is it just a low oil pressure warning light?

[Hartside]

Only low pressure I'm afraid

[Raeman]

Hi,

I drive a '99 toyota yaris which i have had from new. My oil light has been flickering on & off but after checking the oil it was fine. Yesterday the malfunction indicator light came on and then my car just died. It has been towed to the garage where they seem to think the cambelt has snapped. Can someone give me a heads up on the worse case scenario.....what damage could have been done....how much will it cost etc.

Thanks

As mentioned, the Yaris has a camchain instead of belt driven and i would think if it snapped you would certainly hear it, as it would rattle really loud as the pistons clatter the valves!

Oil light blinking away then the car just giving up sounds like an engine seize to me.

If that's the case, it may be cheaper to put another engine in.