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I'm going for a road trip in the next couple of weeks. My car just turned 7 years old 2 months ago. Low mileage (50,000 mi). The recommendation in the manual says timing belt replacement at 7 years or 105,000 miles, whichever comes earlier.
Any suggestions whether I need to do it immediately. I'm still torn - it's $1k and since we're going for 2,700 miles road trip, it might be worth to have some peace of mind.
Thanks
The timing belt replacement costs 1k? Both my and my fiance's car have been replaced recently and it was definitely less than $200-$300 from what I remember.
1k for a timing belt replacement? You might want to get a new estimate.
approaching the recommended mileage would concern me much more than the age of the car.
I think I've heard with belts that time is more important than mileage because rubber decays. If it were me and I had the money I'd go ahead and do it but in all likelihood the odds are in your favor that you'd probably be fine if you didn't.
My advice for a 2700 mile roadie is to rent a car with unlimited miles.. We did this for Insight Bowl.
It depends on the car for how much it costs. I have a VW and you have to take (basically) take the front end off the car to do the job so it does cost about 1k for it. Lots of labor obviously. Also depending on the motor, if that timing belt breaks it can do serious damage to the motor.
Look for info on how to evaluate your timing belt online. If it is squeaking or cracked it is worn out. You should be able to check this yourself, and $1,000 to replace a fan belt would be about 12 hours of labor to install a $35-$60 part. Do not do it for that price. If you want to improve the operation of the car maybe have it tuned up with new wires, spark plugs, and fluids. Run some Sea Foam through your gas to clean the injectors, but if you are not throwing codes your car is operating fine. Also, check for leaks and inspect the cooling system. Just in case.
May be a dated belief, but if a car's timing belt breaks while the car is moving, the cost is 3-4 times higher. The camshaft/pistons are affected and it's a much bigger repair opposed to the belt breaking while idling, or just changing it as a preventive measure.
I would wait until it had 75-80K miles on the odometer
it might be that much because while thy have it apart you should replace your waterpump too. I had all of this done on my ford focus although it has 125,000 miles on it. just peace of mind and I hope to drive it many more years.
Yes, they will replace the waterpump too. It's a 2005 Honda Pilot. I think I'll just have it replaced, as it'll be no fun to have problems somewhere.
If you live in DM area call Tom Harger at Harger Auto 282-2821. Will be way less than $1,000 and he will not do the work if it doesn't need it. He only works on Honda's.Quote:
Originally Posted by cyclone13
We have a 2003 Jetta, and when we had the timing belt replaced last year, it was done for less than $400.Quote:
Originally Posted by MadCy
Yes, rubber oxidizes and becomes brittle with time. For metallic parts, you really only have to worry about use. With non-metallic parts, simple exposure to the ambient environment causes decay even without use. I'd change it.
this happened to one of my buddies...timing belt went out and pretty much destroyed his engineQuote:
Originally Posted by Jambalaya
luckily he had bought an extended warranty because it cost between 4 and 5k to repair all the damage done