1.8T belt disaster
 

75, 1.8T. has thrown its drive belts. Power steering and alternator, timing belt unknown as yet. So, assuming timing belt is OK, will there be any damage caused by this caused by this, is it a straightforward job to replace them? Any help please to a harrased 75 driver who is now finding ownership becoming tedious.

If the engine still turns over ( by hand with the plugs out to avoid damage ) you should have got away with it. The engine can run ( briefly) without the alternator and p.s./air con belts attached to test further. May be best to remove the upper cambelt cover (for the sake of undoing a few bolts) to inspect the cambelt and timing marks first.

Re belts
 

Engine shut itself down immediately. When the steering went heavy I thought i'd burst a tyre. Engine turns over seemingly OK without any terrible noises but will not fire up.

I do believe that when the auxillary belts shred on the K series they have a tendency to ingest themselves into the cam belt.I know that this sounds unlikley but I have seen it happen on the same engine when fitted into an MGF.

If it has done that and coupled to the fact the car wont start..:shrug:

I would check the cam belt before any thing else.

A glimmer of hope, I removed the cam cover and the timing belt is intact (Hurrah) but she won't fire up (Boo). Has the engine management system intervened?

i would check the timing marks line uo 1st in case the belt has jumped a few teeth.
does the car spin over fast like there is lack of compression?

Unfortunately I've seen this a few times when an aux belt breaks or comes off it can wrap around the crank and the cambelt jumps

Same thing happened to my daughters Renault, the aux belt shredded but the cams could still be seen turning through the oil filler but driven by a half width belt. Turned over fine but zero compression.

timing belt
 

Had the front cover off and the timing belt is intact and appears not to have jumped across the pulleys. She still resolutely refuses to fire up.

How do you know? It's impossible to determine if it's jumped a tooth without checking the timing. You can do a simple check with only the upper cover removed and noting the timing mark positions as described in Post 13 of this thread: https://www.the75andztclub.co.uk/for...=154020&page=2

TC