Catastrophic Engine Damage - my tale of woe

[lifecaredotbz]

I'm in urgent need of some advice and guidance here. 2 days ago, while driving home to London after a day trip to Wales, I became aware of a muted belt squeaking noise from my well built, reliable, good looking, 2005 Golf SE TDI (105) 1896 which I have owned and loved for 6 years. The noise didn't get worse and I figured I'd get home and deal with it in the morning.

About a mile from home I suddenly heard a brief flap-flapping noise, the battery light flashed and the engine died. I'm not a car person, but when I looked at the engine I could see the alternator pulley no longer had its belt. Next morning I had the car towed to my garage who confirmed that the alternator pulley shaft had sheared causing the belt to either break or fall off. OK, I suppose after 80K miles alternators can fail. However, the next call from the garage was much, much worse. Apparently, some part of the failed alternator belt had somehow wedged itself into the timing chain which looks like it has caused catastrophic engine damage requiring an engine rebuild!

Question (1) What are the chances of this happening?! Has anyone heard of this before?

Question (2) My car is nearing the end of its life. I'm told it had - before this happened - a trade-in value of approximately £4K. What is my best strategy? To sell the car for scrap? To pay to have the engine re-built? Or to drop another engine into her?

Any offers? Advice & guidance will be gratefully received. Many thanks.

[bandit86]

I have not worked on tdi or vw engines, but alternators don't usually fail like you mentioned

I would go to a wrecking yard and get a newer engine, swap it out and keep driving till the wheels fall off

[hogpowr]

Sounds fishy to me. The timing chain should be sheilded from the alternator belt. The timing chain should be internal engine, and the alternator external.

Good Luck.

[Glegor]

i thought 05s had a timing BELT?!?!

[8gti16valve6]

If they are willing to give you 4k pounds for a car with a bad motor I think the motor is not bad. You car has a timing belt you can easily access. Tell them you want to see it

[vw tdi guy]

Ignore the above comment vw alt regularly have pulley failures I have seen it over 50 times where the pulley falls off. It is rare that it takes out the timing belt but I have seen that too. I doubt you need a complete rebuild. It likely you just bent some valves. Pull the head off and see how bad it is. If it did not drop a valve you should be able to fix it for around 2k.
They cant say you need a motor if the head has not been pulled. As long as it did not drop a valve you only have bent valves way cheaper than an engine.