95 Intrepid 3.5L died - won't restart

The engine in my 95 Intrepid died in the middle of crossing an intersection Thursday morning on my way to work. It was raining, but the engine had been running for over 30 minutes, so I doubt anything was wet (didn't drive too fast through a puddle or anything). I managed to coast through the intersection and pull into a parking lot, but the car will not turn over. I had it towed and my dad is helping me work on it, and initially we thought the fuel pump had gone out since the engine seems to be trying to start and just can't turn over. However, the fuel pump hums when we try to start the car, and we measured the fuel pressure and it's more than adequate. We tested for spark, and that seems to be there as well. I had been having some sporadic problems with overheating, but seemed to have a handle on that after changing the thermostat and the radiator cap. The only error messages I've gotten on the computer were about the oxygen sensors, which I was actually planning on replacing this weekend (before the car quit working completely). We're leaning towards timing belt at this point, but I wanted to know if anyone else has had this type of experience before dismantling the front portion of my engine. The Hanes manual recommends changing the timing belt at 105,000, and right now I'm just over 110K. Of course I just paid the darn thing off! Any advice is welcome.

It is very likely that your timing belt did break. If you have fuel and you have spark, and your air intake is not clogged, then it should fire off. The timing belt is not a job that you'll be done with in a few hours, it'll take a lot of time and patience to deal with. The best way to tell if the belt is indeed broken is to take the oil filler cap off, and have someone try and turn the engine over. If you do not see the camshafts turning, then you for sure have a broken timing belt. Another way to tell if it's broken is to take a spark plug out from any cylinder and feel for compression. If the pressure is not consistent "spurts" again, the belt it is broken.

The engine in my 95 Intrepid died in the middle of crossing an intersection Thursday morning on my way to work. It was raining, but the engine had been running for over 30 minutes, so I doubt anything was wet (didn't drive too fast through a puddle or anything). I managed to coast through the intersection and pull into a parking lot, but the car will not turn over. I had it towed and my dad is helping me work on it, and initially we thought the fuel pump had gone out since the engine seems to be trying to start and just can't turn over. However, the fuel pump hums when we try to start the car, and we measured the fuel pressure and it's more than adequate. We tested for spark, and that seems to be there as well. I had been having some sporadic problems with overheating, but seemed to have a handle on that after changing the thermostat and the radiator cap. The only error messages I've gotten on the computer were about the oxygen sensors, which I was actually planning on replacing this weekend (before the car quit working completely). We're leaning towards timing belt at this point, but I wanted to know if anyone else has had this type of experience before dismantling the front portion of my engine. The Hanes manual recommends changing the timing belt at 105,000, and right now I'm just over 110K. Of course I just paid the darn thing off! Any advice is welcome.

One of my friends has a 97 intrepid 3.5L and his did the same thing this morning died while driving and will not restart. Got codes 12, 54, and 55. He removed the timing belt cover and cranked the engine and the belt did not spin, so I figured it was either the teet on the belt were tore up and not getting any grip or broken pulley or something, then he checked again and the belt was really loose, so I figured the tensioner might have came loose (not knowing too much about this car) well after further investigating he found the belt tensioner and the broken bolt for it, the bolt had broke right off. How often does this happen. The car is still stuck at his girlfriends house which is about 40 miles from where I live.