###TIMING BELT CONSPIRACY THEORY###

Ive been in the car trade for 25 years and never ever handled a timing belt related issue. Mechanics always say its the problem and it isn't. They charge you $1000 for a $25 belt. Cant trust any mechanic.

The $1,000 is not for the belt alone. It's for the mechanic knowing how and where to fit it. A timing belt change could (should?) also includes guides, tensioner, water pump, etc, where ever applicable. Some belts can be an all day job too.

IOW, you're not paying for the belt, you're paying the mechanic for his skill and training - as well as doing the job of course. Don't like that? Then go fit it yourself.

You know you're replying to a message posted in 1994?

Not long before then, I was given a Ford Escort. The car ran for about 20,000 miles, and the timing belt broke, and Ford replaced the engine under warranty. Then the owner drove it another 40,000 miles and the timing belt broke, and so the owner gave it to me, an impoverished grad student.

I took the head into the EE department shop at college and replaced all the bent valves and got everythng to seat properly, put it all back together with a new timing belt, and I got about 15,000 miles on the engine before the timing belt broke and I wound up giving it to a local mechanic. He reworked the head and gave it to his daughter who drove it for a while until the timing belt broke and of course the valve train was destroyed.

--scott

May I quote the wise Peter Drucker?

"Every job looks easy to the man who's not doing it."

Go change a timing belt and get back to us with your time & supplies expense.

Just my rotten luck:

Back in summer of 2003, had a local independent change out my 1996 Ford Contour(Mondeo) belt, low 60,000s.

He had the car for three days, because he did all the work himself. Second day, got a phone call from this guy: "Hey look, sorry this timing belt is taking longer than I thought. There's one end where I can't get the belt off, I'll have to lift the whole engine out".

Got it back later on third day, don't remember how much he charged, maybe $200-250?

Four months later, November, coming home from cross- state on a six-lane, heard a loud buzzing sound, figured it was some Ricer-mod going by in the passing lane.

Minute later noticed my engine was losing pickup. We managed to exit the highway and coast all the way to a tire & alignment place that was closed on weekends. Called AAA and got a tow to a local garage five minutes from home. Next day, diagnosis: 'Timing belt failed'.

So WTH did the first garage do, over the summer when I had the belt replaced at interval?

Have seen that happen with a failed tensioner and more often with a cheap or cloned belt. They will shear the teeth off and slip.

Steve W.:

Hence the 'buzzing exhaust' sound I heard minutes before I limped off of that interstate..!

I suspect this guy simply did not know what he was doing, and probably instelled the new belt wrongly. In how many vehicles have you ever heard of having to lift the engine out to replace a TBT(Timing Belt & Tensioner)?

Not at all that uncommon in exotics.

_______ But a bread n butter Ford Contour/Mondeo?

Some you need to take the engine out to get the sump off.

With the old VW, it was easier to take the engine out to do just about anything with the engine.

Well on the 2.0 version of that car you need to remove an engine mount and lift the engine about 3 inches to get room enough to get the belt off and on. Actually common on many vehicles where they cram the engine in place. There are a few that require mounts to be removed just to work with the accessory belts.

_________ In such case: WTH was Ford THINKING when they designed that car? Excellent road manners, compared by some magazines to the contemporary