Timing Belt

JEWLSTEP

MEMBER
DODGE NEON

I have a 2001 Dodge Neon with 177,000 miles on it.
The timing belt snapped when I was on the highway. They are telling me I have an interference engine and have a 50-50 shot that just replacing the timing belt will fix my car. Then he told me that there is a 50 % shot that they can replace the belt and there's more damage and replacing the belt didn't work at all. What would you do?

1 Reply

KASEKENNY

MECHANIC
18,907 POSTS

The 2.0L engine is an interference engine so if the timing belt snapped while driving then move then likely you did contact the pistons to valves.

This does not mean that you damaged the engine but what we need to do is replace the belt and set the timing.

Then we need to turn the engine over by hand using a wrench on the crank pulley making sure that the engine doesn't lock up and is able to make two complete revolutions to ensure we open and close all the valves.

If it does, then we need to do a compression test to see if we have any bent valves. If we do, then we will have low compression on those cylinders.

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/how-to-test-engine-compression

Once we run through all this info, we will have a better idea if the engine is hurt. If the compression test passes, then we should be good to go.

Let me know if you have questions on this.

Thanks