Timing Belt Failure

1999 MERCURY VILLAGER

91,000 MILES • 3.0L • V6 • 2WD • AUTOMATIC

JULIANA LYKINS

MEMBER
1 POST

My timing belt may have gone while I was driving about 10 mph, there was a misfire sounding noise, then all my dash lights came on, and I lost power steering, brakes, and safely coasted into a parking spot.

From what I read it (hopefully) is a non- interference engine?
My husband just replaced the starter, and a week later changed my brake pads.

Is it possible that he might have done something to cause the timing belt to be unaligned? Would he not have noticed a potential failure in my timing belt while he was replacing my starter?

Hopefully my cam shafts aren't damaged, this is very devastating for my career, and I am at a loss of what to do. I have a brand new cv axle that hadn't even been put on it yet.

Sep 30, 2023 at 5:43 PM

CARADIODOC

✓ASE Certified Mechanic
34,321 POSTS

The only engine size listed for your model is a 3.3L, but that too has nothing shown to indicate it's an interference engine. That's the good news. You just replace the belt, but it is standard practice to replace the other parts associated with it, including the idler or tensioner pulley. This is a big job, and you don't want to have to do it over if the pulleys fail a little while later.

The timing belt is buried behind a cover on the front of the engine. The starter is at the back of the engine, nowhere near the timing belt. Even to just inspect the belt requires hours of disassembly, so it's unrealistic to expect anyone to know its condition when doing other repair work. Because this is such a big job is why we always replace everything in that area when we're in there.

I added the procedure for replacing the timing belt. Let me know how this turns out.

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Sep 30, 2023 at 9:29 PM