What could be grinding on my timing belt?

[rusty959]

I recently picked up a 93 talon. (thread about it somewhere)
Anyways, today I took off the upper timing belt cover just to scope it out. This what I found:

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Any idea what could be doing this? It doesn't seem like it should be the tensioner or idler pulley, but I guess it could be. I would just love to have an idea short of just ripping into it.

 

[ist dwa]

well you are going to have to rip into it because the belt NEEDS replaced. It could be rubbing on anything you will find once inside.

 

[donniekak]

The deep groove is from long oil pan bolts in front, instead of the short ones. Thescuffing looks like the cover is rubbing it.

 

[92EagleAWD]

The deep groove is from long oil pan bolts in front, instead of the short ones. Thescuffing looks like the cover is rubbing it.

Agreed the groove is def from the oil pan bolts. The covers do warp over time and can chew up the belt also.

 

[Indian]

Yup,oil pan bolts. Thats the same thing that happened to my first Dsm. Yours looks way worse than mine did though.

 

[rusty959]

So it has long bolts instead of short bolts meaning Ill need to source the correct ones and replace them?
Does the the timing belt really needs replaced even though it has probably only dug in .5 mm? Somehow I feel even though the belt seems to only be like $20 there is more of a chance of letting the timing slip while replacing the belt than the belt actually self destructing....

 

[SrKegler]

Yes, that belt needs replaced. The $20 price is for the balance shaft belt. OEM timing belts run around $75 and up. For peace of mind, I'd replace the hydraulic tensioner, the tensioner pulley and the idler pulley.

Your oil pan has two short bolts in it someplace. If you dont want to try and find new bolts, just pull the two out under the timing area and then pull the other bolts one at a time until you find the short ones.

 

[DSMopar]

Mine had the same issue (although I found out with my $100+ Power enterprise belt ). Just take out the middle front bolt and grind it down a bit on a grinder... Make sure to properly chamfer and clean the threads