Dodged a really expensive bullet with the car, but it’s still pretty disastrous.
Apparently all Geo Metros have what’s called an interference engine. What that means is that “piston and valve paths may ‘interfere’ with one another as a result of incorrect timing in their movements.” If your timing belt wears out or breaks, there’s a pretty good chance a piston will collide with a valve inside the engine’s combustion chamber and damage it. That would mean a full-on head repair.
My timing belt broke. The shop told me there was probably a broken piston or valve, but it couldn’t tell without replacing the belt. I told them to change the belt and test, and I lucked out. There’s no discernible damage to any valves or pistons. That means no estimated $1,800 repair job to think about.
The water pump belt was also broken, the valve cover is leaking oil, and the water pump itself is 13 years old. The shop pointed out that if I don’t replace the water pump now, when it goes they’ll have to pull all the other stuff (at $95/hour) to do so. That made some sense to me, so I agreed to them doing all that. That means the price will be around $700, which is a huge bite but a far cry from $1,800.
Phew, I guess.