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Timing Belt FYI

B

BrApple

No Life But CEG
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just a heads up to everyone based on what happed to me the last few days.

first off, I have personally confirmed that the zetec (95 contour) is non-interference engine. however autozone says different.

I checked the Gates web site and it suggests checking the belt every 120k miles.

This number is high. When I first changed the belt at 104K the tensioner was about to split in half. Could see the crack coming from the center almost all the way to the outside 180 degrees apart.

my car now has 222k and the tensioner failed this time.

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I would recommend that you change the timing belt and all pulleys every 100K miles.
 
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I second that

I second that

My timing belt jumped on my 95 recently.

At first i didn't know it, so i kept cranking and cranking the engine trying to find out what was wrong.

Eventually i pulled the upper timing cover and the belt was very very loose, so that had to be the problem. After i got a new belt/tensioners/idlers, engine started right back up like it always did.

The zetec is NOT an interference engine. (Tho i don't understand why every single mechanic, store, or even ford says they're interference motors.)
 
UmmScott said:
The zetec is NOT an interference engine. (Tho i don't understand why every single mechanic, store, or even ford says they're interference motors.)
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most engines with timing belts are interference engines.

however I don't believe Ford has said that. I recalls years ago people talking with Ford and they where not saying 60k changes, but I recall hearing that they upped it to 100k
 
I find this to be interesting. IIRC, my tensioner was in near perfect shape when I changed my timing belt a little while back. My lower idler had failed. It seized.

Just out of curiosity, Brian, what kit did you purchase when you changed the belt/pulleys the first time?
 
zorrex said:
Just out of curiosity, Brian, what kit did you purchase when you changed the belt/pulleys the first time?
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I don't believe there where any kits at the time. We are talking around 2001/2002. my father got all new oem ford parts from the local dealer. iirc it was around $300 in parts at least.

I installed a gates timing kit this time from rock auto
 
They used to say same thing about the old 2.3 SOHCs. I personally broke more than one belt on those and never had any problems.

Around '98 or so the belts started being made with Hypalon in them, those are the 120K belts.
 
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