The timing belt on my 1999 Mitsubishi Eclipse broke. What damage is likely to have been done?

Question

I was driving on the highway with cruise control when my engine just shut off. There were no funny noises or smoke. I did try quite a few times to start the car before I knew it was the timing belt. My main concern is if it is likely to have bent the valves or damaged the head. This is a 2.0 4-Cylinder Chrysler 420A engine (non-turbo), auto trans.

Answer 1

i work on them for a living and have never seen one of that modle damage more thain the beld no valves you may need a water pump tensioneers and an idler thats about it

be carefull who you listen to
the people who say it damages more probally had a bad experiance with a different model

i have never seen a bent piston rod ever with a timing belt broke and i dont know what it means to damage a valve wall

Answer 2

All the timing belt does is keep your engine running in time. Everything has to preform at the right seconds. The belt is hooked to the pullies for each part. Your crank shaft, your camshafts, your oil pump and your alternator. Just because it breaks the engine is just going to go through the rotationds until it gets out of time. What you need to do is get the number one cylinder set to top dead center. Then make sure that the distributor is also set to top dead center. Then get the cams set as well. There should be a punch mark on hte pullies to help you with this, but a Haynes manual would deffinately help. I can see where you would be worried that the engine fired while the stroke was not ready. What you can do is take the heads off and look at the pistons. You could try to put a screw driver into each hole for the spark plugs and turn the crank see if the pistons go all the way to the top of the cylinder. If one doesn't go all the way up the piston rod may have broken. But your valves? They really can't be hurt by a timing belt breaking.

Answer 3

if you turned the motor over after the belt broke and didnt hear anything abnormal, you MIGHT be in the clear. I cant remember either if its an interference motor or not (i used to have a n/t 4G63 DSM, interference motor :( ) but if its not then it might just be a few belts and pulleys away from running. But ya never know for sure till ya tear it down

Answer 4

i don't think that's an interference engine, so it shouldn't have did any damage to it,i have did a few that broke belts and so far all i have had to do is replace the belts on them,good luck hope this helps.

Answer 5

yeah you probably did some damage to the valve train and its best to remove the head and inspect it while you are replacing the timing belt

Answer 6

Hi you will definaely have bent pistons/rods . there may be damage to the valve walls. the piston may have hit the head too.. but to be honest the main problem will be bent psiton rods.
If you are a good mechanic then you may be able to fix it... but you may want to consider a re built engine...

Answer 7

Well, that will encounter a major problem. Definitely, the damage will be internal, and that will cause a lot of problems and can be very very expensive.

Answer 8

i dont think that it is a interferance motor so nothing but if it is you might have bent a few valves

Answer 9

?