will a broken timing belt in a 1999 ford contour kill the engine?

For an engine to run it needs compression, fuel, air, spark and timing. No timing belt = no timing = no run. It depends on the car as to whether it will mess up the engine or not. The way some are designed for clearance it will bend valves or knock holes in the tops of the pistons and some will not do any damage.

Ford Contour 1999

FIRSTLY DO NOT START IT! Replacing the belt wow that would be the last thing on my mind of that happened to me, I think you have other problems now because those engines have interference heads as far as I know which means if the valve is fully open then the piston can/will hit it. Get that to the garage as soon as possible and like I said, do not start it because you may be lucky and only need new valves but will still need the heads coming off but you start it then you could cause even more damage. 'will the belt just slide right on the pulleys?' That made me laugh but you'll cry when you see what has actually happened and the bill to get it repaired. Also the autozone guy needs a bullet because he obviously knows **** all about cars or/and engines and is supposed to be a professional.

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RE:

will a broken timing belt in a 1999 ford contour kill the engine?

my car broke down while i was driving, in the middle of a turn. it shut off and the oil and battery light came on. it made no noise, it just stalled out, and now wont start again. iwas told it could be the timing belt. i was also told that if your timing belt goes while driving it will mess up your...

1999 Ford Contour

You could have a bad ignition module or the fuel pump cut off switch needs to be reset. If you have the owners manual you should be able to look up the fuel pump cutoff switch and see where it is located. It could be in the trunk, under the dash or behind one of the kick panels under the dash along side where your feet go.

The fuel pump cutoff switch is designed to shut off the fuel pump during an accident so if a fuel line is damaged it won't pump gas out and creating a fire or explosion hazard. Sometimes after a period ot time with all the road vibration these switches will trip without warning and it will shut down your engine and it will not start again until you reset the switch. It is a simple push button switch that has a small ring built up around the button so it cannot be hit accidentally. Simply push the button inside the ring.

Hope it is the switch as it is a free repair you can do it yourself.

If you cannot locate the switch maybe you could fine a dealer or mechanic that will tell you where it is located.

I know this one. A friend's kid recently bought a 1999 mercury mistique( Same as yours). We researched the Zetec engine, and discovered that there is no way the timing belt breaking can kill the engine. It will take a true professional to repair the belt, but rest assured, your motor is not ruined. Don't let anybody tell you otherwise. Good luck.

yes, broken timing belt can and will go out without any warning and yes, your motor will stalls out immediately.

Now, about your Ford Contour, you do not have "interference" engine. You have "freewheeling" engine...take my word for it, I've done a lot of Contour timing belt replacement.

Click on the link below to understand what interference and freewheeling means.

if the timing belt snaps, the engine dies. if you are right on that not being an interference engine you should be ok. you will still pay for labor but you will not see any hard part damages listed on the invoice like valves and pistons.

without the timing belt the valves stop opening and closing.

it didn't kill the engine,it just made it stop running,but make sure you have good parts put back on it when you have it repaired, the z-tec engine is a non interference engine so the engine survived, you,ll need whats called a timing belt kit for that one that comes with a new tensoner and all parts needed to replace it with,good luck.