Originally posted by tthomas:
I think the Zetec engine is non-interference. So the worst thing that can happen if your timing belt breaks is that you get stuck somewhere.


They are non-interference... Ask Adam (demonictour) in the South Central forum... His timing belt broke while he was driving and there was no damage to the engine... the car just stopped going. His is a 95 zetec contour. In fact he just had to have the tensioner pulley replaced on the timing belt as it wasn't replaced when the timing belt was. There was nothing left of the bearings in the pulley, they were completely disentigrated(sp). I think his tour had 100 and some odd thousand on it when the belt broke and it has now around 120k or so w/ the tensioner pulley being just replaced. As far as we know that pulley was the original pulley too. The shop that did my timing belt said that the tensioner pulley should be replaced at the same time. I guess it's preventative maintenance. works for me.