Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Zetec Maintenance timing belt

I have just bought a 96 GL 5 speed, bare bones 4 cyl with 60k miles. What a great car. The Haynes manual says change the timing belt at 60k. Ford dealer says not required, check it at 100k. Question: does anyone know of a Zetec timing belt failure? Also, should water pump be replaced?

More questions to come.

We have gone through this before, never with any consensus.

I have a Mondeo with the 2.0 Zetec. As I understand it, the Zetec engine is identical in both markets. The interval for changing the belt is given as 80k miles in the official Ford service book that comes with the car. It is also confirmed verbally by two Ford main dealers. I also have an Autodata timing belt information book dated 1998 which lists the Zetec as 80k miles interval and has it down as an interference engine (i.e. damage is *extremely* likely to occur in the event of the belt breaking). This also is confirmed by my Ford dealer.

It has also been said by some US Zetec users that the engine is non-interference and that you may as well run the engine until the belt breaks and do it then. This has also been confirmed by dealers in the US.

Obviously all my info is for the UK Mondeo, but as far as I can tell it's the same unit in the front. Not sure why the official interval differs between markets mind.

Anyway, now Terry Haines is active again, maybe he can answer this definitively.

However, I'm afraid I cannot answer your question, as I have never heard of a Zetec belt failing.

Hope this has been of some interest to you.

Regards

Shawn

Shawn

Thanks for the thoughtfull reply.

You make two very interesting points. You have never known of a Zetec timing belt failure, and Ford has not given a definitive replacement interval. I wonder if Ford has some data on failures, ala the water pump data I saw recently. Does the CEG have sources at Ford? Who is Terry Haines?

It sounds like 80k is the best number available, although years in service might be a consideration. I would sure hate to break one.

By the way, was the Mondeo (and thus Zetec) actually designed in England?

Flipper wrote:

We have gone through this before, never with any consensus.
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It has also been said by some US Zetec users that the engine is non-interference and that you may as well run the engine until the belt breaks and do it then. This has also been confirmed by dealers in the US.

  I would disagree with letting it run 'til it breaks.  Of course a big part of my disagrement is probably influenced by the fact that about 90% of my driving is between my home in Lompoc and my office 50 miles away in Goleta, with nothing in between.  Letting the belt break would almost certainly mean letting myself be stranded a long way from anywhere worth being near.

  Also, there are some shortcuts available in replacing the belt, if you start with the old belt still intact and properly in place, which greatly reduce the cost and effort involved.  If you know that all the shafts are properly aligned before you start, you can mark them, and use these marks to make sure they are lined up when you finish; otherwise, it is necessary to pull the valve cover (meaning you need a new valve cover gasket) and to acquire or fabricate a special tool to align the camshafts.

Terry is a ex Ford UK employee now resident in the US who worked on the CDW27 project that became Mondeo and Contour. IIRC, he was on the drivetrain side of things.



Top of my head ? I don't know. If it was over here it would probably have been at Cologne in Germany - they did most of the powerplant development for Ford Europe I seem to recall.

Regards

Shawn