Timing belt tensioner

[Travis]

My wife is in the middle of a road trip from CA to WA this week and the car quit on her on the highway.  She's in Oregon at a dealership getting it fixed and they identified the problem as the tensioner for the timing belt being "a mangled piece of metal."  Any ideas how that would happen?  The car is a 2003 Ford Focus with around 120,000 miles.  The last time it went through a major service was at 90,000 miles.  They'll be working on it for a few more hours.  The mechanic told her there wasn't any collateral damage, but is there anything else we should be concerned about?

[greaper007]

I'm not sure what the mx schedule is on that car, but generally timing belts are in the 75-95k range.    So if it hasn't been changed since it was new I wouldn't be surprised that there was a failure at 120k.

On most cars, you want to change the timing belt, tensioner, water pump and maybe the thermostat at the same time.     The big cost is the labor.    I bought an OEM kit for my Golf and I think it was under $200 for all those parts together.    If I had to pay for labor it would probably be in the $800-$1200 range (total with parts).

So as long as you're getting that fixed, update the rest of the parts.

[BlueMR2]

On most cars, you want to change the timing belt, tensioner, water pump and maybe the thermostat at the same time.

This, unless you're a mechanic and don't mind doing more work individually as needed.  I don't bother with the water pump and thermostat myself because on my cars they tend to last forever.  However, the tensioner is a MUST with the timing belt on all the cars I know anything about.  Cheap shops will often skip the tensioner.  Then you get to visit them again when the tensioner fails, the belt comes off, and possibly valves get bent.

[greaper007]

On most cars, you want to change the timing belt, tensioner, water pump and maybe the thermostat at the same time.

This, unless you're a mechanic and don't mind doing more work individually as needed.  I don't bother with the water pump and thermostat myself because on my cars they tend to last forever.  However, the tensioner is a MUST with the timing belt on all the cars I know anything about.  Cheap shops will often skip the tensioner.  Then you get to visit them again when the tensioner fails, the belt comes off, and possibly valves get bent.

You're lucky you're driving a Japanese car.    I had to change out the water pump on my Golf at about 75k because the poopy plastic impeller broke into 6 pieces.    Before this car I had a 90 Maxima that I didn't have to really do anything with but change the oil for 200k.   

I'm never buying a German car again.

[BlueMR2]

You're lucky you're driving a Japanese car.    I had to change out the water pump on my Golf at about 75k because the poopy plastic impeller broke into 6 pieces.    Before this car I had a 90 Maxima that I didn't have to really do anything with but change the oil for 200k.   

Sort of related, for my cars if I was going to add a preventative maintenance replacement item, it'd be the oil pump.  In both my Toyota and my Mitsubishi the oil pumps failed (while the water pumps were still good).  :-)

[DollarBill]

The zetec is a non-interference engine meaning if the timing belt breaks the engine will not suffer any damage. Just replace the broken tensioner and timing belt with a new one and you should be good to go. Most cars would have needed a new engine.

[DarinC]

Certain car makers (90s Hondas I think) have t-belts on interference engines, but most car makers these days go with a timing chain on interference engines, which are far more durable. On non-interference engines, belts are pretty common and breakage just requires replacement.