Timing Chain

[rstasa]

I am a college student with a 2002 grand am with 66000 miles. i was driving 70 down the highway and my car just stopped. i found out my timing chain snapped. It did a lot of damage and i had to get a cylinder head replaced. Is there any warranty or anything that might cover the 1400 dollars worth of damage?

[Slade901]

As long as you got regular maintenance, like oil change, etc., I don't think the timing chain will break by itself. It could be a defect in the timing chain itself.
If you still got a manufacturers warranty, then call them up.

Some engines are non-interference. If the timing belt or timing chain breaks, the piston is not going to hit the valves when the crankshaft and camshaft goes out of sync. Just replace the timing chain and hopefully the piston had not seized and the crankshatf still rotates.

Some engines are interference type. If the timing belt or timing chain breaks, the piston going to hit the valves when the crankshaft and camshaft goes out of sync and you got costly repairs.

[rstasa]

Thanks for the reply. The regular warranty on the car was only 3 years and 36000 miles. i just was curious if there was anything i could do. In my situation, the piston did hit the valves and basically im screwed and out 1400 bucks.

[bottomtech]

Sometimes, if you whine loud enough, GM will help you out in unusual situations like this. Don't start at a dealer, get a phone number and go higher up. The dealer can give you a name and number. This only works if you have good maintenence records and had the repair done at a GM dealership. I've seen them go as high as 50%

[Markgase2000]

Is the engine a 2.2? or v6? Ive never heard the timing chain breaking on a v6 , so im assuming its a 2.2? If it is and you had a 50 pt recently then this happened i could see them bending a bit for you. Good luck!

[rstasa]

the enigne is a 2.2. what do you mean by 50 pt?