[Gumpus]

So today I am driving along, and I start to hear this slapping noise coming from the engine. It gets louder and louder until about a mile later, the engine dies. Try to start it, but just hear the starter spinning the engine with no resistance. So I pull over andl ook, and the timing belt lost all of its teeth! Fortunately the beast died a block away from an autozone, so getting another one was easy at least. Thank goodness replacing the belt on these cars is easy, because I had to do it on the street today :bang head: - Still off a tooth too, but it was already dark when I got it started so I just drove it home with no horsepower and 5lb vac.



I was wondering, is this normally what happens when the timing belt goes on these cars? There were timing belt teeth left in the cam gears and everything. Took the belt off and it was more than half smooth. There does not appear to be any reason for the thing to have failed like that, the intermediate shaft spins nicely and the cam is not hosed or anything...

 

[turbovanman]

Its called the belt got old and the teeth came off!

 

[Gumpus]

Yeah, I was just curious, as whenever I have envisioned a timing belt "going out" I thought it would snap in 2 pieces... As long as its normal and not being caused by some other problem, thats good enough for me!

 

[iTurbo]

Every 2.2/2.5 SOHC timing belt failure I've seen has sheared the teeth off. Usually it's because of oil or power steering fluid contamination on the belt which weakens it over time. If the belt isn't tensioned properly, it will fail even sooner.

Check your power steering, cam seal, front crank seal, and intermediate shaft seal for leaks.

 

[Jckrieger]

I've replaced a few timing belts that looked clean, but they were originals that were very brittle. I could peel the teeth right off the belt! Sounds like it's the way they go out on these cars.