Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Timing belt, pulleys and tensioner.

Left work, and 10 minutes later, the car died. Had it towed to a local Ford Dealer and later was told that those items needed replacement.
I was told that the pulley bearing had gone on it and that it need all those to be replaced as a result.

$880.00 Canadian later, my car is back on the road.

I guess my question to everyone here is,

was I hosed at the dealer and does the pulley have a bearing?

I was also told that I was quite lucky in fact because the engine could have been damaged too.

It has just over 140,000km on it right now and this is the first major bill for it.

Thanks,

Stephen

How many miles is 140,000km anyone convert that for me?

Anyways yes the pulley does have a bearing. The repair is an expensive one, I was going to have the timing belt and tensioner/serpentine belt, water pump all replaced for maitnance but it would have been $560 USD though.

By the way the engine CANT be damaged these are non-interference engines, so if the timing belt breaks no worries the pistons and valves wont hit.

I beleive on the 96 there are three pullies fo rthe timing belt, I think it was in 98 when it went to four

now there are build in bearing on the pullies for the timing belt but they are not a service item nor can just the bearing be replaced. The pullies need to completely be replaced.

now that beaing said I changed the belt on my car with 104k on it and the pullies were short, think a bearing was going in the tensioner and they were all worn down. So you would have to have them all replaced if it was done right.

So I would make sure you have all the pullies changed and the belt and you will get another 100k out of the car no problem if you take care of it

as for cost, I beleive they ran us around $2-300 for all the pullies, a belt and a accossory drive belt, don't remeber if there was anything else or not that we got, did the work ourselves so I can't comment on labor costs, so I don't think $560 is bad at all, it does take a few hours to do

but as if you want to look at it this way, you were in a tight spot with a broken car, as long as it is back and running the same as it was before in a short time and the cost isn't going to cause you alot of trouble I wouldn't worry about it that much, sometimes it is good to spend more for what you need

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and the cost isn't going to cause you alot of trouble I wouldn't worry about it that much, sometimes it is good to spend more for what you need

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Any other time of year, that would be true but this close to Christmas! ^%$#@(*& !!!!!

That blew away our Christmas $$$ and more!