2000 Mazda 323F Sport - Broken Timing Belt, worth fixing??

Hello,

I have a 2000 Mazda 323F Sport. It's 1.8 L engine with approx 65K miles on it. The car has just died, and on a brief inspection a mechanic has told me that the timing belt tensioner has broken. I am now unsure what to do. I still owe £1800 on a loan so I don't really want to write it off completely. I would be willing to spend up to £700 pounds fixing it.

So, I was wondering if anyone has encountered a similar fault on this type of vehicle, and if so, could you speculate what the extent of the damage might be...and therefore the cost of the repairs. Guesswork I realise...but any educated guesses would be much appreciated.

Many thanks.

it really all depends if when your belt broke..

if you bent valves or damaged top of pistons i can

tell you i have seen on my brothers honda where his
engine timing belt broke and he simply replaced it and

all was OK!! really it depends if it broke while you were

turning at very little engine rpm like in the case of

my brothers honda then you might be ok now if it broke

while on the highway or motorway at much higher

engine rpms then you might of bent valves and done

some other damage as well

it all depends when it broke at low or

high rpms if your egine has major or little to no damage..

thanks - it was pretty low rpm. In fact, since it was the tensioners that broke, it started to make noise just before so I took my foot right off and was only doing about 15 mph. Thanks for the response,