Took the subject car in to mechanic for water pump replacement at 120K miles. Ran into "might-as-well" replace timing belt with water pump. After about 1 month / 2500 miles, I found out that the newly installed timing belt had disintegrated on the outside 1/2 (this is the outside half as in "outside half of the pulleys", ie, the pulley edge closest to the passenger side tire) and the remaining belt finally slipped a couple of teeth and got the car out of time. Mechanic re-replaced the belt.
As soon as the car came out of the shop, we pulled the upper timing belt cover and found that again, the belt appeared to be running at the very outer edge of the pulley, and was already starting to show some small frayed patches along this edge. There is also clearly a "shiny patch" on the pulleys from where the old belt ran, the old patch was directly centered on the pulley and looked to have about
3/16" clearance on either edge of the pulley.How is the timing belt alligned on these engines? It seems most probable that the mechanic put something back together in the wrong order (crankshaft pulley/washers or spacers) or left out parts entirely and still hasn't corrected the problem. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
Corey