Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General General Zetec timing belt answer from Ford

I emailed question to ford that read...

Want to know if the Zetec engine is an interference engine. Should the timing belt break is there potential for the engine to be
damaged/destroyed? This has been an unresolved
topic on contour.org for some time and I would like to get a definitive answer both for myself
and to pass on to other members of that site.

Here is the important part of their response:

"Thank you for your message of 03/9/02 regarding
your 1995 Ford Contour. We appreciate the time you have taken to inquire about the engine in
your vehicle.

We thank you for your interest in Ford Motor
Company. Our goal is for you to enjoy Ford products and services for many years.

The timing belt in your 1995 Ford Contour with a
2.0L Zetec engine is intended for the life of vehicle, with no maintenance intervals. The
Zetec engines is a non-interference engine, therefore should the belt break, it would not damage the engine."

What? No maintanence intervals

I like hearing the non-interference part, but not sure about the no maintenance intervals.
Then why is it listed in the maintenance log at 60K?

I don't think it is listed ...the serpentine belt may be listed at 60K.

Or maybe they figure 60K is the life of the vehicle.

In any case non-interference is the important part...to me that means I can just look at it once in a while and if it ever starts to look like it is deteriorating then I would replace.

I beleive Ford figures that by the time a car gets to 100k the owner would go buy a new car, prefeably a Ford.... So the belt lasted the life of the car and didn't need service. Like my sig says i have about 100k and the original belt, no problems, and many people have said that they have gone longer before changing the belt

now all I need is some time to change it....

You're probably right.

i went 82k with no problems and the belt was still in good shape.

One of our local memebers(John Miks)had one of the ideler pulleys(IIRC)bearing fail and caused the timing belt to break/slip. Didn't cause any damage and car is running better than ever with the new pulleys/bearings. FYI.

Something all Zetecs should look into though is at around 80K miles check the belt, tensioner pulley/bearing, and both ideler pulleys/bearings. These were all in bad condition in John's car and should probably be replace before the belt. But since you'd be there anyway you may as well do the belt. Johns belt showed few signs of wear at 80K but the one of the bearings failed and caused the problem. Something to look into. I'll see if I can get some pics of the old bearings/pulleys from John.

SQ is correct. The belt was not bad but it had the normal signs of wear. I spoke to a Ford mech. and he said that the belt should be changed between 60K and 70K depending on how it was driven. The manual says at 60k. Mine lasted till just under 78K. It wasn't the belt that went rather the idler pulley that disintegrated. I can take pics but you can imagine. The car showed signs before but nothing serious. You could hear a bit of metallic sound but it wasn't a normal indication of things to come considering it made these noises for many thousands of miles. Not very noticeable but to someone that "knows" their vehicle it was. It made the 8th trip back to Chicago before it went out while taking a normal drive. Two days prior to the event the car wouldn't start after many tries. Finally it started and seemed to run rough. Then, on the drive, the car made a noise, lost almost all of its power and was able to limp home at slow speeds. It was driven to the garage/house and started one more time before finally seizing again. The bearing blew causing the belt to jump. Upon final inspection oil had gotten to the plugs due to the horribly bad running of the engine. Upon inspection of "all" of the pulleys to include the tensioner they showed signs of wear and were replaced also. I think it would be wise to replace the bearing for the idler when replacing the timing belt. I won't tell you the total because I paid a cheaper price for parts and no labor. I'm imagining it would have been around a $600 or so price tag. On the trip back to Colorado I got the best mileage I've seen in years; with the car fully loaded.

HTH
John

The Gates Rubber website has a downloadable timing belt catalog, which also indicates if the particular engine is interference or not.
The Zetec, of course, is listed as not being an interference engine.