Just a little venting. No discernible wear on the belts. Was glad to install a new water pump assembly though. and Saved significant $$ buying coils from the "green spark plug co" in the UK. Cheers Craig Image Unavailable, Please Login
MIne 5 years but I have the HE tensioners which are known to be more durable. The previous owner didn't change the belt for 8 years. Per my research, the stock tensioners are the risky ones. The belt technically becomes a "while your at it" job every 3 years if you have the weak stock tensioners IMHO.
Belt service always brings to my mind the Clint Eastwood "Dirty Harry" character line: ..."you've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?"
like SuperspeedRob said. Ferrari can build F1 / LeMan cars and win., but can't build a timing belt that last 1/4 of time and miles of a Honda Civic?
Seriously guys, do the math. I get REALLY tied of the backseat engineering without ever considering the math. For the record, the forces are more than 4x that in the Civic. Spin your Honda Civic 9000 rpm and see what happens to it; then come back and report on how it holds up over a year or two. PLUS, you can not assess the integrity of a belt visually. The damage is internal, between layers so if you didn't use appropriate inspection tools you have NO IDEA what the condition of the belt may be. I am not saying it will fall apart after 3 years. I went with 5 years but I know I was taking some calculated risk based on my use profile. Ferrari picked a safe period because they didn't want any failures.
plenty of people have gone 10+ yrs and been fine. if you drive the car 8k miles a year id go 3 yrs - if you drive it 2k miles id go 7 yrs.
Though I agree to the position that civics is less powerful; hence, more belt life. I wish I can agree with the Ferrari 9000 RPM comparison. Yes our cars can reach 9000RPM and more BUT I'm pretty sure most cars here never reached that RPM more than once a year or even in a couple of years. I know mine haven't reached that RPM in my entire ownership.6000 RPM is the most mine touched maybe a couple of times only and that is already a handful. Going beyond that on the streets is looking for trouble. FWIW, the previous owner of my car didn't change the belt for 8 years, I do mine 5 years and I know another fchatter I read couple years back didn't change the belts for 12 years. If we are not driving like we are trying to win the F1 championship all the time (above 7k RPM) this 3 year folklore is irrelevant IMHO.
I turn my belts inside out and put them back on. Then I turn them the right way out and swap cylinder banks. It's a bit like rotating tires and makes the belts last a really long time.
Yes an outlier; however, nobody dares to wait that long with all the 3 year folklore talks. So I guess we won't have anymore 10+ year samples. I know mine is a 5-8 year sample and the engine is still there the last time I checked.
Its why I use the cancer example. Some people smoke their entire life and do not get cancer. Many are not as lucky. We saw many failures at less than 5 years on 355 and is why Ferrari changed to 3. Can they go ten? Yup, many do. Many do not. Its a big bill for those that do not. It is utter stupidity to advise ignoring the factory limit. In 40+ years I have never seen a failed tensioner bearing take out a Ferrari motor. I have seen a lot of belts do it though.
Jam: You only run your car up to 6000 RPM? I redline my car every week. Not for long, but I definitely take it all the way up. I assumed everyone did! Just as you assumed almost no one did. Now I am wondering what is actually more common.
Yeah I don't but maybe I'm never in a rush or just want to savor the whip through smooth sailing. It's already fast for me for the streets at 6K RPM and rarely have the urge to go that high. You definitely need to change belts every 3 years then. How often do you do it?
Well, I don’t red line it for long, but I actually thought it was good for the engine to put it through its paces! I try to get it to run hot and run through the full rev band. I would hate to give that up: it is a totally diff beast between 6000 and 8500 RPM! I did the first belt change as soon as I got the car. I’m still debating whether to do the next at 3 or 4.
I would agree with the 355 mess and probably why this 3 year folklore have teeth; however, I don't completely agree with the cancer analogy. I think obesity is a better analogy Cancer analogy suggest that if we don't smoke (which is what's recommended) we can still have the same cancer like smokers did. <== This is suggesting that even the folks that change belts every 3 year can still have a blown engine (due to belts) like the guys who don't change every 3 years. FWIW obesity is a better analogy to the 3 year belt folklore, a person who eats healthy food and in small portions (which is what's recommended) will not be obese compared to folks who eat their hearts out. I know what you mean though, better safe than sorry but there's a better analogy than cancer for the belts IMHO.
