My niece's '95 Ford Escort suddenly lost all power and rolled to a halt - the engine stayed running apparently.

The car was towed to a nearby repair shop, who did a diagnostic and decided it was the timing belt and water pump. That sounds strange to me, since why would both be the cause and if the water pump failed I would expect it to overheat before losing power.

Anyway the quote is for $480 - can someone with access to the standard pricing books let me know, if possible, the defined labor hours for these jobs on that car, please?

They also said 'and we might find something else wrong and that would be an additional $1500' - which again sounds strange, how do they know the fee if they don't know the problem. Does the Escort engine from valve overlap etc. that would be major damage in the event of a timing belt failure?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks,
R

My parents had an Escort that the belt let go on, yes, there was valve to piston contact damage

The waterpump repairs are a PITA, supposedly one needs to cut into the fenderwell to access the bolts.

I cannot remember the year ours was, but glad its gone

I work with a woman who has an Escort of similar vintage and she paid right around five hundred bucks for what I am pretty sure was the same repair.

She also just paid five hundred bucks for a transmission repair. This car has been nothing but trouble since she bought it. My 30 year old 914 has been more reliable and needed less in the way of sudden, near-catastrophic repairs.

Long ago, I bought an Escort for 300.00. Same problem - catastrophic failure due to the belt breaking.

Fixed it and drove it for almost two years before selling it for 500.

-Rusty

My parents had one a while back. Timing belt broke, lost one cylinder. We drove it in and traded it for the vw fox. We coasted it in the dealer and they took it as a trade in without driving or even starting it. LOL

you think that's steep. if you're at the dealership ask the price to replace the heater core . they have to tear out the whole dash assembly. makes replaceing the dash in a 914 look like a walk in the park.

kevin