Invincible Timing?

Has anyone here ever heard or seen a timing chain that broke or snapped? It seems near impossible to happen.

Chains usually stretch. Given enough time anything will break, and I would feel safe saying that it has happend before.

I've never had one break, but saw one with plastic teethe so worn out that it jumped teeth.

Timing chains do break, but long before they do the chain makes a lot of noise. Any person with a little common sense realizes that they need to replace the chain when it starts getting really noisy.

Timing chains do break, but long before they do the chain makes a lot of noise. Any person with a little common sense realizes that they need to replace the chain when it starts getting really noisy.

My chain is making a lot of noise now, but it only has 100,000 miles, how do you think this happened?

The dodge intrepid 2000-2004 2.7L engine has a bad design where sludge build up can cause oil to stop being supplied to the timing chain. The chain ends up snapping due to heat and lack of lubrication, resulting in pistons slapping all over the place and the engine falling apart. However, the 3.2L and 3.5L versions don't have this problem due to a completely different design. Some people over ride this problem by using synthetic oil.

100k is acutully a good time to change your chain. i have a chain on my saturn.. on my dad's 70 something t-bird i think he said it had a chain and somehow it manged to break trying to race someon. he said when he took it to a mechinc he took off the cover and say that a link got cought or something like that on one of the pully/ spockert things that chains use.

My chain is making a lot of noise now, but it only has 100,000 miles, how do you think this happened?

You're talking about the 240 right? It's probably a combination of the age of the car (14 years) and the miles. So I'd probably suggest replacing it soon.

You're talking about the 240 right? It's probably a combination of the age of the car (14 years) and the miles. So I'd probably suggest replacing it soon.

I'm finally having it replaced, the car started bogging down on me, which means the timing is way off. That never happened before. The tensioners definitely need to be replaced because the upper chain got loose and started hitting the valve cover. If it does that long enough, it could break so I'm replacing it today.

You never really know about anything until it happens to you. It's happening to me.