Hi all. We've got a 2005 Escape with the 2.3L 4-cylinder engine. Recently it died and wouldn't start. It'll crank, but won't start. We took it somewhere and they said the timing chain broke and the whole engine needed replaced. That seemed excessive, so we brought it home and had a look. I did a compression test on 2 cylinders and there was no compression in either cylinder. So, we thought that confirmed the timing chain was broken. Started tearing into the engine this weekend and got the valve cover off and could see the timing chain. It looked pretty good. I rotated the crankshaft while someone watched the chain. We went all the way around the chain and it isn't broken. But it is a little loose. When I was turning the crankshaft, it would be really hard to turn and then suddenly it would release and turn easy and then would be really hard again and then get easy. Probably in the same spot. After I'd turned it a few times, it seemed to loosen up and be easier to turn all the time.

Is there a tensioner on the timing chain that could have gone bad and cause the same symptom as a bad timing chain? Or has anyone else seen something like that? Did it screw anything up to turn the crankshaft so much?

Thanks!

 

The resistance you felt while turning the engine over manually was the compression in some of the cyls.

What you need to do now is line up the timing marks and see where they stand. . If they are off , it could mean the chain skipped a link or two.

If the timing marks line up as they should, there is another problem.