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Timing belt issue

plzmonte

New CEG'er
Joined
Oct 10, 2006
Messages
8
Location
Warren, MI
Hello.

New to this forum. I have a 98 Contour SE with the 4 cyl that has 135,000 miles on it.

A few weeks back, the timing belt went on me while I was on the freeway. I was doing about 70 mph at the time.

I had this repaired. The repair included two new tension pulleys along with a new belt of course. One pulley was concaved and the other barely spun. So it appeared these two pulleys contributed to the belt shredding.

Well, upon putting about 600 miles on the car, it appeared the timing was off. Once back in the shop, they found the belt was shedding. Looking further, they found that one of the pulleys had a grove cutting into it.

They replace everything, but weren't able to determine what was causing this. I pick up the car and we agree to put some miles on it an bring it back so they inspect it to make sure all is well.

Well, I put approx 350 miles on it. I start smelling the burning of the belt again, so I take it back to the shop as it's been 7 days.

Sure enough, they find that the belt is fraying again. It's like the belt is being pulled. They are baffled to why this is occurring, as they said everything is lined up correctly. So they will be looking this over again and replacing everything for a third time.

I was wondering if a member has experience this issue. If so, I would greatly appreciate any info on what the resolution was.

This car has been very reliable and performed great for us. It's also in pretty good shape and has many new parts (water pump, suspension, tires, headlight lenses, etc). I'm hoping that I can keep this car until next spring, but really wondering if the time has come to replace it.

Based on how this car was running prior to this, I really thought I would of been able to keep this car for a couple more years.

I appreciate any info / advice on how to resolve this.

Thanks.
 
I'm no expert on timing belts but I have had my issues. I can only think of two things that might be wrong:

1) Wrong belt size
2) Tensioner pullies are set wrong.

To my knowlege, the second one is your best bet. They may have the tenioners set to a degree that is causing too much tension on the belt. Other than that I'm clueless. I'm sure other CEGers will chime in w/ more help.

Welcome to the forums.

Also you may want to check out the old forums for more help(use search function): http://www.contour.org/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?Cat= make sure you set the date range to "all post"
 
That was my thoughts as well. I can't think of anything else, so I thought I would check with this forum.

The shop is swearing the pullies are set correctly. But they are going to look it over a third time as it's under warranty.
 
There are three pulleys

There are three pulleys

There is one idler pulley and tensioner pulley at the top and one idle pully down by the crank pulley. They all have to be replaced together.The one at the bottom was shredding my belt.
 
Thanks macb. But here's the thing. All of them have been replaced! :help: In fact, one of the new pulley's was replaced a second time.

What appears to be happening is that the belt is "walking off" towards the cover. As it is "walking off" the pulley, the edge is fraying. Just had a third belt put on a week ago. I had it checked yesterday and it appears it's still happening.

The shop that has done the work is pretty much baffled and frustrated. :ponder: The guy specifically mentioned that they have replaced timing belts on several other contours and never seen this happened before.

For me, this has been frustrating as the car has been in and out of the shop for this repair since late Sept. There's nothing wrong with the engine mechanically. And it run great until the belt start shredding. So it's frustrating to not have a car due to this timing belt issue.

I didn't have the time to fix this myself (job requires me to travel), hence why I took it in to a shop to have this done. Glad I did considering what's going on.
 
How many miles are on the car. the belt walking almost sounds like it may be the crankshaft or one of the camshafts having too much endplay and its walking back and forth causing the belt to do the same. however im not sure how to go about checking the endplay of the crankshaft while its still in the car (the camshafts can be done).
 
With 98 Zetec with the VCT solenoid, make sure when they do the tension that they leave the cam sprockets loose. Some people seem to skip this step. The sprockets are not keyed and will spin on the cam when loose. If they leave them tight the tension will be right on the side of the tensioner and most likely loose between the sprockets and on the other side. This can cause your belt to walk and your timing to be off and possibly cause a code light with the VCT.
 
shredding cam belts

shredding cam belts

I too have that problem, posted about 2 years ago. I replaced EVERYTHING except for the intake and exhaust pulleys.

I suspect that the exhaust pulley for the VCT is the issue. It is mounted on a short bearing on the cam and in the head.

I fixed my problem in two ways:

1. It is now an in town car. The belt lasts forever if I keep it off of the highway. A terrible solution for most, but I don't live near a highway and it works.

2. When I removed the original belt at 90.000 miles the lower idler bearing was melted. I replaced all of the parts and thats when my troubles began. I finally removed the lower idler, retimed the cams and the belt now tracks even with the edge of the cam pulleys instead of overlapping the camp pulley.

If you find a better solution, I would REALLY like to hear about it, as the contour is a more comfortable road car than my suv.

Andrew
 
I too, am having this problem. My SE has been out of comission since the end of Oct. and I need to get it back on the road so I can get the SVT in storage. When we changed the timing belt, we got the gates kit. There was one idler that was still ok, so I didn't change it, all the replacement idlers were smaller than the originals. I also didn't loosen the pulleys, but I made sure when I tensioned the belt that there wasn't any play in the belt between the pulleys. I can start the car and it runs, but it runs like crap. I am also having an issue with my motor mount as the bracket that goes on the rubber "bump" just slides right over it and doesn't stay suspended, so maybe my motor mount is shot now:shrug: Any help would be appreciated!
 
I'm sorry for bringing a 2 year old thread back to life, but has anyone else encountered a size issue with the timing idlers in the Gates TCK294A (98+) kit? The last time I did mine I used a Motorcraft belt and some individually packaged idler pulleys (from Cloyes I believe), but I'm doing one for a friend this weekend and he purchased the Gates kit. Should I expect a problem? Also, if the idler is a slightly different size, does it even matter? I would assume that, given proper tension and belt length between toothed pulleys, it's no problem.

Anyone care to share their experience with the 98+ Gates kit? I know the procedure and have the proper tools, it's the parts I'm worried about. I'm afraid I'll end up like the people in this thread!
 
update on cambelt shredding

update on cambelt shredding

With the fixes described in my first post on cam belt shredding. Removal of the idler pulley closest to the crankshaft and a proper belt tensioning (too tight is death) I now use the car on all of my trips. No more cam belt shredding. Over 20k and still looks new (left off the top cover to track its progress)

From my experience on a couple of contours now. The most critical issue appears to be cam belt tension and on 98 and later cars the proper tensioning process.

Loosen the bolts in both cams, install the belt, adjust the tension (a little looser is much better than tighter) then tighten the intake then exhaust cams.

I surmize that the lower idler was a factor in my cam belt alignment issues and have removed it with no ill effect. In fact depending on build date many contours do not have the lower idler.
 
I haven't had any problems with mine since I replaced it with the gates kit and it's been a year and a half now. :cool:
 
It's been a week on my '98 Zetec with the NAPA kit (not sure who makes it for them) and so far so good. I also left the top cover off so I can keep an eye on things.

Great little gas miser on the highway!
 
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