10 Questions You Should to Know about Timing Belts

What is a timing belt?

A timing belt is a rubber belt with teeth located inside of the engine and needs to be lubricated by the oil in the engine, making oil maintenance important as well. Every time you use the engine, the timing chain is in use.

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My car has a timing chain, is that the same as a timing belt?

If your car has a timing chain instead of a timing belt, a timing chain will rarely need to be replaced. If you don’t know what your car has, you can find all this information in the owner’s manual or just ask a mechanic.

What does a timing chain do?

A timing belt synchronises the rotation of the crankshaft and camshaft ensuring the proper timing and allows the engine’s valves to open and close during each cylinder’s firing.

What causes a timing belt to break or wear?

Over time, your timing belt will stretch due to internal component wear. The chain’s tensioner or guides connected to the chain may wear out also, causing the belt to fail completely.

When does a timing belt need to be replaced?

The recommended time for a timing belt replacement is anywhere between 70,000 to 100,000 miles unless a specific problem arises. Timing belt issues are common in higher mileage vehicles.

Why is my timing chain making noise?

Timing belt noises are very noticeable during start-up when oil pressure and flow is at its lowest. Excess slack on a timing belt will cause a rattling nose or even a clanking noise depending on how severe the slack. If the timing belt wear is great enough so the hydraulic timing belt tensioner cannot compensate for the slack, the noise will continue after starting up.

Why can’t I inspect my timing belt to see if it needs to be replaced?

Most timing belts will be hidden behind covers and engine parts, and because of this, it’s hard to perform a visual inspection of your timing belt.

What happens if my car’s timing belt breaks or fails?

When a timing belt breaks or fails, the engine will not start or run, and the car needs to go in for repair. In most cases, major engine damage occurs due to the pistons not coming into contact with the valves.

How much does it cost to replace a timing belt?

The average cost of timing belt replacement can be anywhere from £300 - £500, but the price will all depend on if the belt has caused any other damage and the make, age and model of your car.

Why is it expensive to replace a timing belt?

Timing belts aren’t easily accessible, which makes for an intensive labour job. When it’s time to replace your timing belt, you may need to consider replacing additional parts such as the tensioner, idler arm and water pump as these are also difficult to access. Replacing your timing belt is a lot less expensive than replacing an engine that is damaged because of a broken timing belt.

Timing belt replacement near me

If you have been experiencing issues with your timing belt and need to have it replaced, you can get quotes from local mechanics in your area with MyCarNeedsA.com!

I had a timing belt replaced on our Civic last November at 100,000 miles. Then, recently looking over my service notes, I see that I actually had the timing belt replaced about 1 1/2 years earlier at 92,000 miles. Duh! Who doesn’t pay attention to these things?! My bad. Now, I imagine they recommended the work - both times - because of the mileage. But my question is, in the absence of a wide-awake customer who would question the recommendation, and a mechanic who might review the service history of the car, would a mechanic know by visual inspection that the timing belt doesn’t need to be replaced, if the one in the car is only 1 1/2 years (8,000 miles) old? In addition to increasing my own consumer awareness, I’m wondering if there’s anything unethical about the mechanic’s approach to the issue.

Generally you can’t really tell while the belt’s installed on the car. The trouble is that they tend to wear and crack along the inside ribs which are essentially impossible to inspect with the belt installed. I’ve had ones that looked perfectly fine from the outside but once I had them off the car were practically falling apart in my hands.

Once you actually have the belt off the car you could probably make a somewhat reasonable guess as to what kind of shape the belt is in, but it’d be kind of silly not to put a new one on with all the labor necessary to get to that point. It really is just a “replace at X mileage” item. It’s usually good practice to put a sticker or something under the hood to indicate the date/mileage it was last replaced.

Yep, exactly.

The timing belt isn’t the type of part that you just open a cover, replace the belt, and slap the cover back into place, and that’s it. The timing belt goes between the engine crankshaft and the camshaft, and spins the camshaft which opens and closes the valves that make the engine work, coordinating those valves with the engine pistons, which are attached to the crankshaft.

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In order to change the timing belt, you need to remove the front cover off of the engine. But, on a modern car, you’ve got about 40 bizillion things attached to the front cover of the engine. The alternator, air conditioner’s compressor, power steering pump, and other things all are in your way. So, just to get to the timing belt, you need to do the same labor as replacing the alternator, replacing the AC compressor, replacing the power steering pump, belt tensioners, and a bunch of other stuff, and that’s just go get to the engine cover. Then you have to remove the engine cover and actually change out the belt. All of this labor is why just changing the timing belt is a bit costly.

On many cars, they’ll recommend changing the water pump when you change the timing belt, since you’ve just disassembled the entire engine to the point where changing out the water pump is just a minor addition to the work involved. If you don’t change out the water pump and it breaks later, then you have to repeat all of that labor just to get to it.

So yeah, if you just went through all of the labor to disassemble the front of the engine, it would be silly not to replace the belt while you are there, even if the belt did look almost brand new at that point.

Your mechanic didn’t do anything wrong.

If you want to see what your mechanic had to do, here’s a youtube video of a guy doing the job at home:

Note that this video is just part 1. It continues on to multiple videos. ETA: He doesn’t even get to the timing belt itself until the second half of the 3rd video.

What GreasyJack said.

Timing belts pretty much defy visual inspection. If it’s really close to new, with the writing on the outside surface not faded, or really old, with the outside surface cracking, you can tell something IF you’re trying to evaluate it*. Most of the time, though, a belt with 10,000 miles on it will appear about the same as one with 100,000 miles on it and you have to remove it to learn anything. On many engines the labor to get to that point is 85% of the cost of belt replacement, and even if the belt looks good there’s no way to know how much longer it will last if re-used. It’s pretty hard to make a case against installing a new belt.

*A mechanic instructed to replace a part for maintenance reasons isn’t looking to assess its condition. IF he were instructed to inspect it – which is virtually never done on a timing belt for the reasons mentioned above – he might have determined prior to removal that the belt was not due for replacement yet. But that still leaves the question of just how old is the belt (i.e., how long will it last now) and some money has already been spent removing timing belt cover(s) just to get eyes on the belt. I don’t see an ethical lapse here.

On preview, what engineer_comp_geek said.

I’ve replaced the timing belt on my 92 and 96 Accord four times now. The first time was a bitch. Last time I had it done in 2.5 hours with no lift.

I was not able to see any major difference between the old ones and the new belts. My uncle had to replace his engine due to a broken belt so I’ve never worried too much about the price. I got the whole kit including water pump online for 150 iirc.

I have a sticker on my belt cover with the date and mileage of the replacement. I thought that was standard, I guess the service advisor didn’t look for it or it was left off.

My info shows a timing belt replacement interval of 110k miles. However, since in this case it’s more than ten years old, replacing it a couple years ago at 92k, or last year at 100k, is a reasonable thing to do. It’s replacing it both of those times that’s whacky. :smack:

If it was the same shop both times, and particularly if the shop suggested it in November rather than you requested it, I think the shop goofed. A sharp operation would have reviewed your file to get an idea of maintenance that might be due (which they could legitimately sell you, to your benefit and their delight), and also of maintenance done – which they’d better not try to sell. Even if done in all innocence, avoidable overselling of work gives the appearance that the shop is not honorable, and at least indicates they’re not on the ball looking out for your needs. If this is the case I’d talk to them and request some compensation.

If it was two different shops, then it looks like the responsibility falls on the car owner.

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