cam belt

i hope someone can help me. my son in law had a reconditioned engine fitted to his frontera about 18 months ago,recently the car would not start and having called in the rac they told him that the cambelt had broken, something to do with a plastic clip on the cambelt. would it be normal for the garage to fit a cambelt with the recon engine ?
also they have suggested that a piston might have been damaged, but the only way to find out is to fit a new cambelt and then, and only then can they tell if the pistons have been damaged, obviously its going to cost a lot of money to change the belt, and if we then find that the piston is damaged it will probably mean another recon engine, is it right that the only way to tell is to fit the cambelt first.
any help or guidance you can give to someone who knows little about cars would be much appreciated, thanks for taking the time to read this and also for helping, if you can
regards
Bill Osborne

Hi m8 sorry to hear your troubles i had a belt slip on me and did all 16 valves in but no damage to pistons the garage would only fit a new belt if you asked then to as a cam belt kit costs £97.00 so i dout they did fit a new one,you could take the head of and see if the pistons are marked but if it snaped when he tried to start it i dout there will be any damage.
Good luck
paulmary

Hiya mate,
If you fill your profile out a bit, it will make advice easier and more accurate as we will know exactly which engine you have...

I would have said a recon engine should come with a new cambelt...to me a recon has been reconditioned (not just steam cleaned and painted!), and this would involve the a rebore, or hone, new rings, shells etc.. head coming off, a new headgasket and cambelt..

What warranty came with the engine???

by chance i have been in contact with an engine reconditioning firm this week & they told me that if they take the head off then they would fit a new cam belt kit so if your engine was reconed then they certainly should of replaced it ! but whose to say that it wasnt changed, it might of been a faulty part within the kit fitted

did the rac strip the cam belt cover off to check for your son ?
it should certainly be a lot cheaper to change the cam belt kit than taking the head off, i think if i was you i would go to another garage for quotes for both the jobs