I am very well aware of that, fool. I was lookingfor advice and mechanical knowledge of what to expect with the 2.0-liter timing belt issue. I do my own maintenance, my own engine work, my own electrical, and my own bodywork. I was a maintenance tech for 6 years, and for the past 3 1/2 I am an electronics and automation tech. I have also done the majority of all my own vehicle repairs and such for the last 12 years, and like to think I am pretty skilled at it. I do not mount or balance my own tires, I do not do my own wheel alignments, and I do not re-align frames or unibodys. About everything else I try to tackle myself and so far have done a good job at thank you very much.

A couple other members in here obviously have some evry good information about this. That is why I was asking, as I said in my original post --->> my concern over the "dilema" of the tensioner pulleys that I couldn't quite recall the details of when I read it last.

Thanks for info everyone, good stuff.

 

Personally, I thought it was a pretty straightforward and easy to do job...

Loosen the exhaust manifold, take off the motor mount bolts, put a block of wood and a jack under the engine. Raise and lower the engine as needed, remove the crank pulley, move the PS pump and lines (three bolts and you just push it out of the way). Take out the main torx engine bolt, wrestle the engine mount plate off, and the timing belt is right there. Since you have an 03-05 Neon you have a mechanical tensioner, which, 99% will not go bad...and even if you did need to replace it just slides right off.

THen just make sue you have the timing marks lined up, the tension set correctly, and put everything back.

 

bingo, +1

 

hey you changed your name, i think i'm gonna do mine professionally.

 

The name change, or the timing belt? Lol...

Well it's a bit of a toss-up for me. I'm really not that worried about the expense or effort it will take. My biggest concern really is just finding the time to do it. I don't want to take everything apart on a Saturday and my luck something wierd will come up. And since this is my only reliable vehicle at the moment and a necessity to go to work, it makes it rough if it goes out for a couple days.

 

yea i know that feeling.... im slowly approaching my 100k mile mark.... only like 10.5k left to go... and im getting VERY nervous b/c I just find the complexity of the timing belt job to almost be too much for me.... plus i dont have a 3-jaw puller to get certain pulleys off, and my Haynes manual doesn’t say how to re-adjust the tensioner ( i have the hydraulic tensioner b/c i have a 2001... so yea) and I know that I’ll run into a problem somewhere else along the line too b/c i always do... I mean I am confident I could do it in a weekend or so but the fact that its a very precise part of the car that leaves NO room for error that makes me uneasy b/c I just know that those stupid timing marks will move when im getting the belt on and off... anyone wanna come to NJ and help me do it when I hit 100k?!&lt\\;br&gt\\;

 

Well I know the feeling about that... if I do it myself on this car it will probably be the tightest or most pain-in-the *** car I've done this on, which makes me a bit dreadfull of digging into it that far... had the top of the motor off last summer, but that's nothing compared to this in my opinion. We'll see...

 

Just do it yourself. Either way its a learning experience regardless of how difficult or easy it turns out to be.

 

I probably will do it myself, just a matter of when I can squeeze it in to this weekend or the next... lots of maintenance to do besides this.

 

Good luck its a toughy. Husband did it in my sxt and he had a really crappy time doing it too took him a day to do it though.