Very sad experience with my 2004 Santa Fe, 2.7. Belt failure destroyed engine. The belt was replaced with the water pump back in October. This was after I did a vapor canister replacement a year ago. After the water pump and belt job, the vehicle ran beautifully; nice and quiet and sounded like it would run forever. Well that was a jinx statement. Last week, the engine just stopped and would not restart. I had it towed home and started diagnosing it, finding no codes in the computer. After verifying it had fuel pressure and weak spark on one of the cylinders, using induction pickup light, I took the front apart to inspect the timing belt. That is when I found the belt to be shaved down to a million pieces and the marks at least 10 teeth off. I began to big task of replacing the belt. I inspected all the pullies and the water pump plus the tensioner. All seemed to be good. It just looked like the belt was fractionally off from left to right and it just walked to the inside and chewed itself up. I put another belt back on it, lined up all the marks, and my heart sank when I could only turn the crank 3/4 of the way before it came to an abrupt stop. After rechecking and finding the marks to be perfectly aligned, I put it together and tried to start it. It initially would not start, but if I held the the throttle mid way, it would run for a few seconds with a horrible banging sound. So there are bent valves and possibly a damaged piston or two. This engine has 192,000+ miles on it and the car is a beater. Not worth fixing, so I got to find a salvage yard that will tow it out of here. I think I'm done with belt engines. Let me see if I can get a couple of pictures of what it looked like when I took the front covers off.

 

Trying to understand this failure, if not the belt, it may have been the timing belt tensioner pulley bracket. It appears there may be a rubber bushing in the bracket swivel point that deteriorated. Although I replaced both pullies, I did not consider the bracket as a potential wear point, or point of deterioration. If you look at my 2nd picture, to the left of center, you see the pully bracket and I believe the black mounting tube where the bolt goes through has some rubber bushing material. I also put a picture of that piece below. It won't help me now, but if anyone with a high mileage 2.7 might consider replacing this piece with your next belt change. The OEM piece consists of the roller pulley and the bracket and sells for around $180.

2.7 timing belt tensioner pulley and bracket

 

Cleaned out all personal belongings and called a salvage place (Core). They came out, paid me $455 cash, gave them the title, and they hauled it away.