My daughter calls, says was pulling into a parking spot and her 244 dies. Wouldn't restart. I tried the usual suspects---25 amp fuse, checked all connections on driver's fender, checked for fuel flow, etc. Couldn't get it running, so had it towed to my shop.

Timing belt is broken. Shop calls and says valves could be bent, big $$$. He says that there was oil from a leak on the belt, and must have hastened the deterioration of the belt. Since it is a non interference engine, I thought a broken timing belt would not cause further damage. They put on a new belt, lined it up correctly, but he said that there is no compression, either wet or dry. This is all over my head; just relaying what he said.

Does this mean that something else happened to the internals of the engine and the timing belt was a subsequent effect? I am hesitant (obviously) to throw more $$ at a lost cause (for my wallet at least), but at the same time, if a fix can be made for a reasonable sum, I would love to keep the car.

As I have never experienced this on my 2 other 240s, when a timing belt goes, does the engine continue to run, or does it die immediately? If it dies immediately, then the only continued turning of the engine would have been while trying to start it/jump it--could that have caused any damage?

Any advice/suggestions?