Timing Belt direction important?

Oh crap..... I installed a new timing belt along with water pump, serpentine
belt, etc...... and after it was all together read an article someone posted
mentioning that they thought that the arrows on the new belt should point to
the front of the car........ I hope not....... if it is a new belt..... I
did not see that in the directions from hma on line instructions...... so I
may or may not have installed it that way.

2003 Santa Fe 2.7 Litre, 63,000 miles.
Thanks.

 

I'm not familiar with the Santa Fe in particular, but when most parts
have an arrow on them it is for a reason and typically points to the
direction that the part should rotate if a moving part or towards the
front of the car if not a moving part.

Matt

 

The arrows on the belt point in the direction of rotation.

 

What if it is installed backwards? The reason I ask is that it mentions
marking the direction of travel if it is going to be reinstalled...
If it does need to be flipped around, would running it for a few hours the
wrong way hurt anything?

 

It might cause some premature failures, but I wouldn't expect any
significant damage over a short period of time.

 

Installing the wrong way may cause it to fatigue sooner. Shouldn't be any
noticeable effect if it's corrected within a reasonable amount of time.