Hey Guys,

So, I know timing belts can be pretty common on these 3.5s as I had a couple first generations in Intrepids. But I've never seen them SHRED the eff up and make a rats nest in the timing cover. I spun all the gears and pulleys in there and none are seized up, not even the water pump, like is common. There is no coolant leaking from the pump. Now, the most back story I know...I just bought the car in January with 191K, but the guy was a retired mechanic and bought it at auction with a bad motor and put a junk yard motor in. The motor had writing under the "hat" that said motor installed at 141K and new plugs timing belt and water pump at 171K. It is now like 196K so only 25K on the timing belt.

My intent for the car is for my wife to drive while I fix the transmission in her Jeep, then we sell the Pacifica, so I don't plan on having it but another month, so what all should I do? Should I just replace the belt and call it good?

What would cause it to shred like this with only 25K and no seized pulleys?

Thank You in ADvance

 

Unless that thing was idling when the belt went, you have bent valves.
The 3.5 is an interference motor.

 

It was infact idling...I feared that as well and spun the cams a few revolutions with a ratchet, and nothing seemed to bind up.

 

For the cost of a new timing belt kit, I would go ahead and buy/install it and see if she fires up. Perhaps there was a "mistake" involved in regard to the timing belt having been changed....

 

I would bet the tensioner idler pulley was cocked/misaligned. Looks like the belt walked and shredded over a long time until it was so narrow it finally let go. There are also 2 generations of pulley bracket/hydraulic tensioner. If mismatched belt tension would be wrong.

 

This very well could be...the guy I bought it from was a very honest fellow, told me he bought the car at auction with bad motor and put a used motor in it. He said before he retired he was a certified mechanic...I guess something like this is easy enough to not know unless he worked in a Chrysler dealership. I also called him to try to get more details. He said he replaced Water pump, belt, and tensioner, and that he doesn't use cheap parts, only goes to 2 parts stores (the town he lives in doesn't have "discount auto parts" like Advance O'Reilly's, or Autozone.) So he may have frankensteined things together, and didn't realize it'd matter which tensioner he used.

With all that said, how can I tell which the motor needs, mfg date on door won't work as the motor is different, and how can I identfiy which tensioner is installed??

 

Already done did it...was just looking for advice/ideas as to why it would have shred so quickly, so I can try to prevent it again...it won't even affect me, we're selling the car soon anyway. My wife was 8 months high risk pregnant when the transmission in her WK Jeep went out, and had 2+ Dr appt a week between her and our 16 month old, plus being ready to pop and me working an hour away and another half hour to hospital, I couldn't have her without a vehicle, s we bought the Pacifica just to get by until I fix the Jeep. Still haven't touched the Jeep when this timing belt happened so it was a kick in the face for dragging my feet...then to pour salt on the wound, Monday on my way home from work a little early to do this belt, the fuel pump in my truck went out. So Tuesday I spent doing this belt, then driving 45 min to my truck on the side of the express way and did my fuel pump...Very eventful week before hump day even.

 

Change occurred after 02 Early on left, 03 and up on right.

The contact area for the hydraulic tensioner is different. Early Left one uses a shorter one than the late one on the right
As long as both tensioner and pulley bracket are from same year they should match.

 

My pulley looks like one on right, with a groove instead of a boss. The tensioner was just a pin with a hole at the top to hold it down during install

 

So, I figured out what the issue was for this odd belt wear...as I had to replace it again. It didn't break this time, but the water pump started leaking, and since I foolishly didn't change it out when I had everything apart, I got to do it all again!! But this time I noticed that I was able to rock the water pump pulley and that was probably jittering the belt back farther and farther and was grinding it into the back of casing. So a little lesson for everyone else who are trying to save a buck. I figured since the pump was theoretically pretty new I didn't have to worry, if the age was unknown I would have changed it. NEVER again...always always always a new pump!!!!!!!!!!