Questions and Answers

Timing Belt Boo-Boo

Q. Can you help me? You see I changed my timing belt and now the car can't start. Its a Ford Mondeo 2000cc 16V 1998

A. I checked all of my books and I can't find a Ford Mondeo listed in any of them. Then I looked at your E-Mail address and if I'm reading it correctly, you're from Singapore. I'm going to hazard a guess that It's fairly close to a Ford Probe. When something like this happens, it's best to go back to the basics. The first thing you need to keep in mind is that this is an interference engine. That is to say that the valves and the pistons occupy the same place inside the cylinder at different times. So if the belt breaks while driving, the cam stops moving but the crankshaft will continue to turn, smacking the valves with the pistons. This will bend the valves and possibly damage the pistons as well.

Take off the timing belt cover and make sure number one cylinder is at Top Dead Center (TDC) on the compression stroke. The piston will be up, both valves will be closed and the distributor rotor will be pointing at number one spark plug wire. Make sure the timing marks are aligned exactly. You can check this diagram. If they don't line up, line up the crankshaft mark , take the belt off and carefully turn the cams until the marks line up. Put the belt back on, button it up and see if it starts. Hopefully it will. If not, then you will need to do a compression test and see if you have any bent valves. If you get a zero reading in one or more of the cylinders, the head will have to come off and the valves replaced.

With a little luck, you'll be okay. Let me know how you make out.