Broken bolt broke timing belt - trashed motor

[FloridaGlenn]

Hello Kia friends: About three weeks ago, I had a local shop replace the timing belt on my 2004 Kia Sedona van. Van has 83,000 miles on it. He also replaced the water pump, spark plugs and coil packs, (the old ones were cracked causing motor to misfire at times). Today, while driving home, the motor made a loud clanging, grinding noise and stopped running. I coasted to the side of the road, opened the hood and sure enough, the timing belt cover is broken and chewed up. I had the van towed to the shop who did the work. This afternoon he calls me and tells me the bolt on the idler belt pulley broke off causing the timing belt to break. He swears this is not his fault as he did not remove this bolt. I drove over there and he showed me the bolt which is broken off. He is a nice guy and has a good reputation, but it's hard for me to believe that all this happened so soon after the belt was replaced and the two are not somehow related. Has anyone ever heard of this happening before? Can you replace the belt without removing the bolts that hold on the pulley? Any and all help with be greatly appreciated. Glenn

[DavesSpectra]

I believe these were "one time" bolts and should not be re-used...Also believe
KIA did have a recall on these cars 03 and 04.
http://www.kia-forums.com/2003-2010-...uth-rumor.html
Go read this thread and contact KIA about "if" your Sedona had the bolt replaced.
Dave

[jlps]

If he did not replace the pulley, then he might think about sticking to just doing oil changes. Any decent mechanic with a half a brain will replace all the pulleys when doing a timing belt, most dealerships do this at every timing belt change. He just cost you an engine for no good reason. Sorry, but you better find another mechanic.

[Pacosworld]

FloridaGlenn: I have doubts that the timing belt idler pulley bolt just broke. Did he show you the pulley that it was attached to? I wonder if the pulley had locked up from worn bearings or perhaps they over-tensioned the timing belt by loosening the timing belt tensioner pulley instead of just removing the hydraulic tensioner.

DavesSpectra: I believe you're thinking of the crankshaft bolts on the older Sorentos. Those were one time use bolts.