In article , "Percival P. Cassidy" wrote:
On 06/15/10 11:00 am, SteveB wrote:

The manual - and therefore the dealer - says the timing belt on his
vehicle should be replaced at 90K, which is right where he's at.

On my vehicles, I operate in a "run until failure mode" for MOST things.
That does not include tires, brakes, and safety items. If the vehicle is
driven locally, and it throws a timing belt, a short tow would be in order.
If it is used for trips, it would be a longer tow, and failure on the
Interstate or in another state would be a more serious scenario.

With belts now being common, there is less damage when the timing belt is
thrown, versus a timing chain, so you don't really risk massive damage from
failure.

If it was my car, I'd drive it until failure.

We had a '96 Dodge Stratus ES (Mitsu****ty 6-cyl interference engine).
At 55K or so, the water pump went, so I said, "Replace the timing belt
while you're about it, even though it's supposed to be good until 100K.
No point in paying for all that labor twice over." At about 85K "Bang!":
broken timing belt; not worth the cost of repair. I don't know whether
the independent repair shop -- in another State -- did not in fact
replace the timing belt as instructed and for which I paid or whether
they didn't check and replace the idler/tensioner pulley, whose bearings
might have been ruined by the leaking coolant. The local Rescue Mission
to which I donated it told me they couldn't find a replacement engine
for it that was any good, so they just sold it to a wrecking yard. They
also said that the company through which they offer warranties on the
cars they recondition and resell won't do warranties on cars with those
engines.

Our current Chrysler 300M is a few hundred miles shy of the 100K at
which timing belt replacement is recommended, and you bet I'll be
getting the job done within a very short while -- and I'll insist on
getting the tensioner and water pump replaced at the same time. All the
dealers around have quoted me about $1200 for that lot; I haven't yet
got a quote from an independent.

I'm just sitting here reading this thread and smiling to myself as I think of
the Dodge truck and two Saturn SL2s we have now, and our three previous cars
and trucks, with a combined total of over a million miles ... and timing
CHAINS in all six...