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We have a 99 Ford Contour it was towed to a shop today..and they called that it was a broken timing belt..but something about pistons and if it did damage.. and I was wondering.. does t he timing belt hurt the pistons.. or will i have to replace the whole engine or am i safe? kinda hoping and all the information i looked up..i was safe. any help will be gratefull

If the timing belt breaks at high engine speeds (RPM) then it is possible to damage major components of the engine including the valves, pistons or even the block. The timing belt does just what its names implies - keeps everything in time (i.e, valves closed when pistons are all the way up). If the belt breaks, it is possible for the valves to still be open when the piston gets to the top of its cycle and the two could make contact. If this happens, the valve is sure to bend and depending on how long or how hard the two collide, piston damage could occur. If the valve breaks, it could do extensive damage to the cyclinder walls. A key factor in judging the possible damage is how many RPMs the engine was at when the belt broke and for how long the engine stayed running or if you tried to crank it over once the engine died.

Full damage cannot be fully known until the cylinder head is removed.

I just replaced timing belt on 1999 contour 2.0.  When belt broke, it did no other damage to engine.  Please replaced all idlers and tensioner when you replace the belt.  This engine had 74K miles, and all needed replacing.  Total parts OEM at Ford dealership wholesale was $254.00.  After installing all new parts, engine started right up, runs as new.   Total labor time took about 6 hours. (I am small used car dealership with our own shop).     Hope you have good luck.     Lynn

 

Yes, Lynn is right. I just replaced a timing belt and pulleys on a 98 contour 2.0 ztec engine. It will not hurt your valves or anything. My car also started right up after i replaced everything.

 

I do have a question for some people here though. I replaced the timing belt/pulleys, etc over a week ago. I made sure the belt was tight and the tensioner too for the timing belt. It was also at TDC. So after driving the car for almost 200 miles, just last night the car died on me and wouldn't start up. I was going about 55 mph and i automatically put it into neutral. After i came to a stop, i tried to start it again in park and neutral and it wouldn't start up. I looked at the engine and noticed that the timing belt shredded a little. there was thick powder and strings coming out from the timing belt cover. When i had someone turn the key over for 1 second, i looked inside to see if the belt was still turning the cam and it was. I thought maybe the belt was scraping against the plastic or something and caused it to shred, but would it shred or anything if the car shut off while i was in drive? 

 

Any ideas what i could check for that caused the engine to die all of a sudden? The lights worked fine and everything even though it wouldn't start. Also I thought maybe it got too hot(somehow) and today I turned over the key and this time the engine turned over but didn't sound like it is about to start. Last night while i had cables hooked up to the car, it really sounded like it was going to start right up but didn't. Before when my pulley busted and threw the car out of time, there was a certain sound while trying to start the car, now it makes the same sound, like it's completely out of time again. Any suggestions would be great.

 

Thanks in Advance. 

Your problem was that you made sure your belt was TIGHT. If the belt is too tight it will walk off the passenger side end of the pulleys and get shredded on the right engine cover. I have experience with this. By setting the belt tension correctly (see a TSB from ford about this) your problem should minimize or go away. On my car that was not enough so I removed the bottom small idler near the crankshaft and set the belt tension slightly loose, 2 years and 20 thousand miles and life is great.

 

Likely your car now has incorrect valve timing, replace your belt use the correct tools to set timing and have fun.

I have a 99 ford contour with 120,000 miles.  I inherited the car from my mother.  Last week i was driving and the belt broke.  I was going about 45 mph and just starting up hill.  I called several different repair shops to get it fixed.  All of them asked for the engine size.  It is a 4 cylinder 2.0 engine.  After telling them that i was advised that it is a non-interfiron engine and just the belt would need to be replaced.  After having the car towed to their shop, now they're saying that the valve stems were bent and needed to be replaced and it would be cheaper to replace the engine!  I dont believe them if three repair shops said it was a non-interfiron engine.  Is there anyway I can find out for sure without taking their word for it?

I have the same problem around the same milage from what i can find on some web sites the 99 and up dohc 2.0 is listed as an interfiron motor http://www.aa1car.com/library/2004/us70444.htm it is at the bottom of the page in the green box . I got excited by reading the upper portion when it said the early ones ( escort , probe ) where and the newer ones where not , but when I got to bottom of page the little * was by it indicating occupied valve motor and possible valve damage . So it is possible . There are ways to tell if you have bent valves but require work to diagnois . One way would be to pull the followers off the cam and using a compression tester hose apply air to the cylinder and listen for air bleeding out intake or exhaust manifolds . This would take awhile to perform but would be able to tell for sure . It would cost more if you had it done at a shop . If you did it yourself ( if you have the time , tools and ability ) and checked out ok then I would find another mechanic . Or you could take his word for it and ask him to tell you when they are removing the head and wait around and see for yourself . { anytime I have machine work done I mark my parts in away that you wouldn't think that or that would be hard to see and take pictures of marks to know for sure }