Its been about three weeks now and my car is finally back on the road. A few week back, my timing belt popped and I initially thought i was gonna need a new motor. I had the car towed to the dodge dealership and they kept telling me that if the belt popped I would surly have bent valves. They wouldn't even check, they said they just knew because the 03 stratus has an interference motor. I just couldn't convince myself to spend nearly 4k on a new motor so I had it towed to a local garage and had the belt changed for 250. The car drives fine. The dealer is such a rip off.

2003 Stratus SE 2.4

 

good to hear. 99.9% of the time the valves do get bent with an interference motor. every now and again you will here of a story like yours, norm the belt breaks at low speeds. how fast was the motor going when the belt broke?

 

If you have the 2.4 DOHC engine, I believe it is not an interference engine. Case in point, the belt just needs to be replaced with the cams/crank all lined up. Congrads on that though. Before my Wife left Vegas to move to FL with me, the shops out there quoted her 800.00 to do it. [sm=smiley21.gif] My father and I did it in less then 3 hrs.

 

The 2.4 is NOT an interference engine, but like any engine you still have the possibilty of going wrong. This link explains everything about it. http://www.mopar.com/street/tech1000.htm

Edward