'98 contour 2.0L - four timing belts in 2 weeks
 

My Contour just broke down again. This will be the fourth timing belt to break in two weeks. The car does not register any codes. It just begins to sag and hesitate and a few miles later - the belt is kaput. Any ideas?

Just a guess, did you change tensioner and waterpump along with any of the belt changes? If one of these are worn, it will cause a bad tracking issue.

Well the mystery is solved. The girl at counter at Autozone pulled the wrong timing belt kit. Oddly it had a defective tensioner. I'm hoping to get a refund on the wrong and defective kit. At least is wasn't something serious. Thank goodness she got the right water pump.

Oh that makes me hot when that happens!!! The 97 is a pain just to mess with the serpentein belt not alone the rest of the project. I would assume the 98 is a like.

One thing to replace along with the timing belt is the cam position sensor. It's cheap - about $18.00 - and very easy to replace (at least on the 2.0L). I think it took me about 10 minutes. My car popped a P1383 after the last belt replacement, which made me nervous since it can mean the belt was put on wrong. Anyhow, I cleared the code. Since replacing the sensor, no codes have been set or appear pending. The car seems to run a bit more smoothly. The old sensor looked a bit worn at the top of the probe end. I suspect it may have been faulty. I probably should also replace the crankshaft position sensor too.

Time will tell if this quick fix helped.