Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting TIMING PROBLEMS!!

I'm obviously pretty new to this site, and very inexperienced when it comes to cars! I have a situation and here it goes, last august my timing belt broke on my '98 contour, ( 4cyl), i took it to a local shop and they did the computer test and it read obviously some timing problem and he opened it up and of course the belt had sheared three teeth! So he threw and new one on and called it good. I drove it home ( about 45 miles) and pulled into the driveway, and no sooner did it die again. Called the people up had them come get it come to find out it was the idler pulling bearing had blown apart ok fixed that the car was fine. Now in February the CEL came on and I had it checked at Auto Zone and it was the same code P1381, and i took it to another guy who looked at it and found that the bottom pulleyes rubber middle had slipped and the little tensioner arm that doesn't have to be put in until you first replace the belt hadn't been put in. He fixed that not even a month later the CEL came back on and I just now had it checked again at AutoZone, same code P1381. Now everything that I've read here suggests that I may need an engine oil flush! Is this assumption correct or should I be focusing on a bigger problem? HEEELP Please! I want to go into some place knowing a little about my problem so I"m not being taken for a huge amount of money! Thanks....

I forgot to mention that I live in Michigan and want to drive to Florida, so I'm trying to solve the problem before hand and that my Contour has 165,000 miles on it!!!

Having the VCT get sticky is apparently very common.
But it's usually in the retarded position.

The exhaust cam is supposed to be retarded when the PCM tells the VCT solenoid to send oil pressure to the VCT cylinder. A spring returns it to the advanced position. When it's gummed up, it usually fails to return to the fully advanced position.

You need to make sure the VCT solenoid is working, and that the timing belt is really on correctly.

It is common for the belt to be put on while the cam is retarded by sticking, in which case it may at some time become too advanced by freeing up.

The only way to tell is to have someone who really knows what they are doing check it.

If you were to try it yourself, I would remove the valve cover and use the hex on the exhaust cam to see if it is returning to the advanced position, and use a timing light on it to see if it retards while running. This is not something to be tried lightly.

An oil flush is a good first step to be sure the system is not gummed up.

Would the Ford Dealer I bought the car from be the right place to take it back? And should I continue to drive it like it is? Especially to Florida!! (1200 miles one way)! Thanks for your help!!

Any place containing the word DEALER is usually my last choice.

Even Dealers have installed belts wrong because they didn't check the VTC function first, and this can get expensive at a dealer.

Best thing to do is discuss the VCT system (variable cam timing) with the mechanic so you know that they know how to do it, instead of the usual glib 'yea, we'll fix it'. At the very least inform them of the sequence of problems and specifically ask them to double check the VCT system.

Knowledge is Power!

If the timing is not too far off it won't hurt the engine.
Only way to know for certain is to check it.