Having replaced a few of these belts, and having seen a few questions here on the Forum regarding belt replacement, I have put together a basic procedure on this process. Belt replacement on these cars is not difficult, but it's a little bit of a pain due to the limited space on the driver's side of the engine compartment. I can do one in about 1.5 hours now, but you can do it as a first-timer easilly in 3 hours while enjoying a few beers.

My procedure follows below. This procedure is available in a correctly-formatted MSWord document. If you'd like a "real" copy of this with nice formatting, just drop me an e-mail request for the Mitsubushi Timing Belt Article to:
V8FastCars@msn.com

Good luck with your timing belt work!



How to Replace the Timing Belt, Mitsubishi Eclipse 1.8/2.0

by Lars Grimsrud
Lafayette, CO


This tech paper will discuss basic procedure for in-car replacement of the timing belts on the 1.8 and 2.0 Mitsubishi engines in the 1st Generation Eclipse.

The procedure outlined here differs from other I have seen, and is based on my years of experience doing this work in the quickest, least painful, most economical way. It is recognized that other people will have different methods of doing things, and may disagree with specific methods and procedures that I use.


Overview
The timing belts on these cars aren’t too much fun to replace with the engine in the car, but they’re even less fun when they break due to old age… Replacement is not that bad of a job with the right tools and a few hours of time: Plan on spending about 3 hours to do this at a reasonable pace.

The single-cam engines are non-interference engines. That means you can break the timing belt when the engine is running, and the pistons will not hit or damage the valves. The twin cam engines are not so lucky: If the belt breaks, you total the engine. So it’s important that you replace the belt when needed: Most belts have a life of just over 100,000 miles. If you’re at 120,000 on the original belt, you’re on thin ice…

The SOHC and DOHC engines are a little different, but the basic procedure is the same. Both engines have 2 timing belts: One belt is the “real” timing belt that drives the camshaft from the crankshaft. This belt also drives a balance shaft that must be correctly timed to avoid engine vibration (more on this below). The second belt, inboard of the timing belt, is the drive belt for the oil pump and a second balance shaft. Although this belt usually does not break, it should be replaced whenever the timing belt is replaced.

Tools Needed
The following tools are needed as a minimum:


Floor jack
Jack stands
½” Drive ratchet with extensions
3/8” Drive ratchet with extension
¼” Drive ratchet with extensions
3/8” and ¼” drive metric socket set from 10mm through 17mm
Metric combination wrenches: 10mm, 12mm, 14mm, 17mm
Slotted & Phillips screwdrivers
Wheel lug wrench
Flashlight and/or drop light
Paper towel
“White-out” or white paint stick
Box of Band-Aids
Cold beer

Procedure
Here is my recommended sequence and procedure for replacing the timing belts:


Park the car on a level surface. Raise the front off the ground and secure with jack stands.
Remove the diver’s side front tire/wheel.
Remove the plastic panel inside the wheel well. This panel is secured to the chassis with some 12mm head bolts up in the wheel well and along the front radiator crossmember. There are also some plastic push fasteners that look like Phillips screws: Unscrew and pull out the plastic screw, and then pop the plastic retainer out of the panel. Keep the panel and hardware together and set aside.
Place a floor jack under the engine oil pan. Make sure you place it so that it does not damage the pan, or put some rags between the two. Raise the jack enough the support the engine.
Remove the driver’s side engine bracket. There are 2 14mm head nuts on the forward side, and 2 14mm head bolts at the other end of the bracket. Once unbolted, remove the 2 nuts securing the engine mount through-bolt to the chassis, and remove the through-bolt after removing its 17mm retaining nut. Keep all this hardware with the bracket as you pull it out and set it all aside.
Loosen the tension on the alternator, power steering pump and air conditioning compressor belts.
Remove the water pump pulley from the water pump by removing the (4) 10mm head bolts.
Remove the harmonic balancer/pulley from the crankshaft by removing the (4) 10mm head bolts.
Remove the air conditioning belt tensioner bracket/assembly on the 2.0 engines by removing the (3) 12mm attach bolts.
Remove the accessory drive belts, keeping track of which one goes where.
Remove the 10mm head bolts holding the upper and lower plastic timing belt covers to the engine. Most of the bolts are around the perimeter of the cover, but some are recessed into the middle areas – watch for them.
Remove the upper and lower timing belt covers and set aside with the attach bolts. The lower cover is easily removed down through the bottom.
Loosen the 14mm head bolt that secures the timing belt tensioner. Also loosen the Allen-head (internal wrenching) bolt that acts as the bracket’s pivot point. With the bolts loose, use a long screwdriver to pry the tensioner to its fully collapsed (loose) position, and then snug up the 14mm head bolt to hold it there.
Remove the timing belt.
Loosen the center bolt on the balance shaft pulley to relieve the belt tension. Remove the balance shaft belt.
Have a beer.
If you have high mileage on the engine, now is a good time to replace the water pump: It is easily accessible with the belts removed, and it otherwise a real pain to replace.
[size=2]Locate all the timing mark do

 

Lars, thank you for the very detailed post. I appreciate all the time it took to provide this explanation.

 

Could someone finish the final part of this post? It abruptly ends at "[size=2]Locate all the timing mark do."