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Is it the timing belt?

G

GTXKen

New CEG'er
Joined
Aug 21, 2011
Messages
16
Location
North Riverside, IL and Lowell, IN
Hi Everyone

I'm new to the Forum, joined a few weeks back and have just been reading and lurking.

My 96 Contour GL (118K)has started making noise lately. Sounds like a slight rattling from the timing belt area. Sort of if you took a couple bbs and shook them in a dixie cup. I pulled the top little plastic cover off and stopped or running the belt does not appear to be hitting anything but the belt looks a bit dried out and in need of replacement.

I have no idea if this thing has been changed before, the car was bought used like 2 months ago. In your experience do I have a couple weeks or should I park it until it can be fixed?

Thanks
Ken
 
I would get it done fast

I would get it done fast

If the belt looks bad it is bad. You will need to remove the cover and it may be obvious that its the belt or tensioner. I wouldn't drive it much if the belt looks bad. I have heard of people ignoring timing belts that look good and snap anyway.
Good luck
 
thankfully, if it does snap there is no risk to the engine as the Zetec is non-interference (I know the books all say otherwise but the books are wrong).

As was mentioned, a video could be useful. there are a couple different things that commonly cause a tapping/ticking noise in the Zetec engine. 1 is the timing belt or its pulleys. the other is the hydraulic tappets (lifters/buckets/etc). yet another is the fuel injectors, they can sometimes tick rather loudly but its not an issue and wont cause any damage. if its the tappets then they typically get quiet again for a little bit when you change the oil (when was the last time the oil was changed?) and will then get loud again. Fords "fix" for noisy tappets was to tell the owner to be sure to run the car to over 4000RPM on a regular basis. this causes an increased flow of oil to the heads and tappets and will quiet them down a bit (although sometimes even that doesnt work). the timing belt should be replaced every 60-100K miles, since yours is a little over that its entirely possible that its never been replaced. improper tension in the belt can cause it to smack against the cover(s), or worn (or even broken) pulleys will cause noise as well.
 
Thanks for the replies...

The guy that I bought the car from told me the belt WAS replaced around 80K. Looking at the belt it looks older than that, like I said, light cracks in the surface. Its not lifters or Injectors. I am familiar with those sounds. These are random rattlings, the tensioner sounds likely based on where its coming from. I see the kit is like $100 at rock auto, guess I will place my order. I was hoping it could be driven another week or two, oh well.

I looked at the how two, it actually looks relatively simple on these cars, I have done a couple other dual overhead cam motors before.

I car idles real poorly as well, is that common in these cars when the timing belt is worn or is that something else?

Thanks
Ken
 
well if the timing belt has jumped a tooth from being too lose then it could cause a poor idle. does it run fine otherwise? if so then the poor idle is likely a vacuum leak or bad IAC valve.
 
Obsolete parts

Obsolete parts

Ford dealership.. two days from the nearest one in stock... obsolete part, of course... You may get lucky and find one local.

I thought it should have come with the tensioner kit as well.. but it doesn't. Also, unless you use Rockauto, the tensioner only comes in a kit with the other two pulleys. NAPA, Autozone, VIP, and two other local parts stores all gave me the same story.

Having to repair the daily driver immediately, I didn't have the luxury to mail order...

Tensioner spring F5RZ-6L273-A
Tensioner spring bolt W700001-S1309 (you can substitue 6 x 49, fully threaded, 1.25 pitch)
 
I've never replaced the spring on my car, or my brothers. Never had a problem yet. My brothers Focus has over 210K on it now with all stock timing components except for belt and Tensioner, but yes, the stock spring is still in there.

As for the tool, its only like 20 bucks from summit, and it makes the job much easier due to the perfect fitment in the cams.
 
Cam alignment tool

Cam alignment tool

As for the tool... 1-1/4" x 9" x 3/16" piece of steel bar stock from home depot only costs $7.00 and you get 3' of it.

Regarding the spring... I couldn't have my daily driver / commuter out of commision for two days waiting so I took the gamble and
set the tension by "feel". Snug, but not too tight... Too tight and it will walk off the pulleys, too loose and flapping and possibly skipping
a tooth could occurs.

Followed the "How To", along with other diagrams in the tensioner kit...

Seems to run well... albeit a little sluggish climbing steep inclines. Other than that, no differences in acceleration / performance
(If you can call it that with a stock 2.0l w/283k on the clock)...
 
I'm a bit confused about the tensionner spring. I thought the tensionner pully itself was springloaded. I have had a hard time finding a picture of the set up with the spring, I unserstand that the spring is only on early motors. Saw this video on utube, 2003 2.0 this motor has no spring. In part two hes reinstalling the tensionner pully.

Part i http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4IgVvfovhA

Part II http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRKtcM6fLB4
 
Well....

The new belt kit came yesterday (belt, idlers, tensioneer)
Spring should come in today

Last night I started dis-assembly, found the car needed rotors so I went to the parts store and got rotors and pads. I had the brakes done and everything completely taken apart in no time. If I had all the parts I could have had it together last night. Its amazing how much has to come off to get to everything but nothing is very difficult.
 
has the water pump ever been replaced? if not then now is a good time to replace it as well since its located behind the timing belt and you are already in there. your local parts store should have one in stock i would think.
 
The pump appears to be mounted off to the right outside of the timing belts and covers?????????????????????

I finished last night. I have to say this was not hard but very frustrating. The configuration of this motor matched none of the instructions I fount, it was different than the how to on this site, the videos I found on line, the crappy hayes manual and the instructions that came with the belt and pulley kit. If it were not for my experience with other cars and timing belts I would have been lost.
 
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