I have only had my cruiser for 6 months. It's a 2008 Automatic. Recently was driving it when it lost power, coasted it 50-100 ft to get it off the road. Turned the key off and tried to restart, it made a rolling R sound but wouldn't start. All the lights worked good, so not a battery issue. Had it towed home and a friend looked at it and said it was the timing belt. So I bought a new belt but another friend said I couldn't just replace the belt that I had to get a kit with a water pump and tensioner pulley in it also. My question is do I need the whole kit or can I get by with just the belt. The water pump seems fine. Any thoughts??

 

Many factors to consider. Miles, past maintenance history, what failed.
2.4 are Typically "Non- Interference" engines, meaning the pistons should not contact the pistons. (Can happen on rare occasions)
Typically "Maintenance" somewhere between 89 -100k the belt should be changed. Most folks do replace the water pump and Idler bearing while they have the engine apart.
That being said, Do you HAVE to replace the water pump, No, Good idea while it is apart, yes if you are going to keep the vehicle.
Being a DIY guy personally I would install the new belt and confirm the engine runs ok. Than I wold FLUSH the cooling system and THEN replace the water pump and idler.
Flush prior to pump swap to avoid contaminating the "new" pump seal. Many reports of leaking , crappy replacement pumps can be traced directly to flushing the system with a fresh pump on it.
Be sure to use ONLY the correct coolant, check owners manual, suspect it should be HOAT GO-5 and use the pre mix or distilled water

 

You could just replace the timing belt but with the effort involved to simply get to the timing belt, the effort to replace the water pump is minimal. It is also unknown how the broken belt may have impacted the water pump as the belt was moving quite fast when it broke and went flying loose. The water pump could last 6 months or 6 years but why risk it. If the belt was being replaced as part of routine maintenance (every 100,000 miles) I would be less concerned. Besides, if the timing belt broke it is likely other maintenance items may have been overlooked such as a cooling system flush.

I would definitely replace the tensioner. It was fully extended, quickly, when the belt broke and may also have been damaged by the loose belt. There is also the possibility the tensioner failed and caused the problem. Too important to not replace.

Not certain if you are planning on doing this yourself but the degree of difficulty is at least a 7-8 on a 10-point scale.

 

can confirm, i've done timing belts on many a mini mopar in my life (and many more to come!), and the 2.4L in the PT Cruiser... well it certainly lives up to the nickname of PTSD Cruiser doing that job.
local shops book it as a 16 hours labor job. as ggoose mentions, if the water pump fails you're doing a timing job again effectively, so might as well just do it once. Mopar used to sell a master kit for the job. Currently I source it from Modern Performance...
https://www.modernperformance.com/pr...ing-components
given that all OE parts in that kit comes out to < $300 before shipping, and the (again) PTSD inducing nature of the job, this is definitely one of those moments when doing it right will save you a ton of heartache in the future.