OT: timing belts

From: Gordon JC Pearce <gordon_at_gjcp.net>
Date: Sun Dec 26 04:46:14 2004

Joe R. wrote:
> At 09:43 AM 12/25/04 +0000, you wrote:
>
>>Joe R. wrote:
>>
>>> The '68 chevy didn't use a timing belt, it used a timing chain. Just
>>>like all the REAL American cars! Personally I wish they all still did. I
>>>hate these stupid rubber timing belts! All they're good for is generating
>>>revenue for the delaers when they slip or break and you end having to buy
>>>half of a new engine or a new car.
>>
>>Well, that's just down to stupidity.
>
>
> Tell me how it's supidity when you have a factory belt installed by a
> factory trained mechanic and it jumps timing with less than 1000 miles on
> the new belt and destroys half the engine! I'm waiting for an answer!

It's not been fitted properly. This is why I never trust garages to do
any work on my cars.
>
> A new timing belt costs a tenner
>
>>at the most
>
>
> Hah! Just bought one for my Mitsubishi Diamonte. $170+ ! Plus 3.5 hours
> of labor at $99/hr. The last several that I've bought have all been over
> $100 except for the one for the Subaru and it was $80 something (ten years
> ago!) IIRC the one for the Maxima was $120+ in 1987!

Did you get that from a Mitsi dealer? I don't know how labour costs
scale between the UK and the US, but $99/hour sounds incredibly high -
my dentist doesn't charge that much!

> Also just had one changed on my daughter's Daewoo. They want you to
> replace all the related tensioners, pullys, etc at the same time. Those
> parts alone were almost $500!!! I was lucky in that the car still had 3000
> miles left on the warrenty. The belt broke in that one at 57,000 miles and
> the cost to fix everything was over $1200. I still have the paper work and
> can show it to you if you don't believe me.

Yeah, because on nearly every car that uses them you need to do the
timing belt every 30,000 miles! Have you read the handbook, or the
service guide?

If the belt has broken, who knows what kind of mayhem the bits may have
caused? A lot of engines use cheap and crappy pressed steel camshaft
pulleys, which *do* get bent if the belt breaks and gets wedged under
the cover.

Honda do a V6 engine, that is used in their own cars and in Rover 827s.
  The cars (I forget what model of Honda, possibly an Accord) are
mechanically identical. The Honda service guide says to replace the
belt at 30,000 miles. The Rover service guide says to replace the belt
at 50,000 miles. Guess which make you find in the scrapyards, with
broken timing belts and bent valves?

>>on (step forward, Citroen XM 2.5TD, not nearly as nice an engine as the
>>CX 25DTR) it takes at worst a couple of hours to fit. I can do Volvo 2-
>>and 3-series belts in about half-an-hour...
>
>
> I wish you'd come do the belt in my Mitsubishi! I'd PAY to see someone
> change it's belt in 1/2 hour!
>

If it's as easy to get at as the Volvo, with its cavernous engine bay...

Gordon.
Received on Sun Dec 26 2004 - 04:46:14 GMT