My friend has a 2000 Odessy he bought brand new. It is nearly 11 years old with only 60000 miles on it. he is a light footed driver so he figures his timing belt might still be good. I am a little worried that if it breaks he will be in for hefty repair.What do you think of his figuring.
I think that he is very, very foolish.
Either he has never read the maintenance schedule for his van, or he does not believe the opinion of the engineers who designed the Odyssey, or he is not able to comprehend the information.
Use the search feature at the top of the page to search for posts with the words “snapped” and “timing belt”, print some of these threads, and show them to him. After reading those threads, if he still insists that “light-footed” driving will allow him to avoid the inevitable and expensive engine damage that will occur when his overaged belt snaps (with no warning), then he deserves whatever consequences result from his bad decision-making.
As we like to say in this forum, you can’t fix stupid.
Bought It New, Eh ? Then It Should Have An Owner’s Manual With A Maintenance Schedule. Regardless Of The Low Miles Or The Light Foot, If Its Got One, It Should Be Changed Because It’s Nearly 11 Years Old.
CSA
It’s very hard to fix STUPID and CHEAP. A friend of mine, who is not too car savvy, but his wife is, bought an 8 year old Odessey with the same mileage. His wife insisted on all the maintenance records, and got the seller to lower the price since he had not gotuen around to changing the timing belt yet. The van has been running great and trouble-free. This lady, a music teacher and outdoors enthusiast,catalogues all the manuals of everything they own and budgets for maintenance and repairs.
OP’s friend probably got a good deal on the van, and is trying to save money on maintenance (“If it ain’t broke, don’t do anything to it”)!
If you treat your pets like that, the SPCA will soon catch up to you.
The weight of his foot is thoroughly irrelevant - whether speaking figuratively or literally.
It doesn’t matter how this van has been driven for the last 11 years. You can’t stop the clock on an aging timing belt, and you are also correct that if the belt breaks, your friend will be in for a hefty repair bill. This engine has an interference engine, so when the belt fails, pistons will meet valves and that nice, smooth, powerful VTEC V6 will be useful for nothing more than a boat anchor. Your friend has a choice to make: a few hundred dollars in preventive maintenance or a few thousand dollars in engine repair or replacement due to the lack of preventive maintenance.
How has your friend’s luck been with the transmission, and what maintenance regimen does he follow for that? If the transmission is original, he is lucky. Those buggers have been known to pack it in around 20-30k miles, even when driven conservatively. Fluid and filter changes every 30k miles is a good idea to keep the trans alive.
Please Stop. You’re Doing Damage To The Asian Car Myth.
CSA
Tell your friend to look at his owner’s manual. There will be a section on maintenance. In that section it will list some things that need to be done every XXX miles and some every XXX months, whichever comes first.
When a timing belt breaks on most cars, (I believe including the Odessy) it usually takes the engine with it. So unless your friend wants to turn a moderate cost maintenance item into a very high repair cost, suggest he needs to get that timing belt done yesterday.
BTW there are several services that generally should be done when they are replacing the belt. Usually the water pump and belt tensioner should be done at the same time, since a lot of the cost of replacing them will already be paid for by the work on the timing belt.
The one thing that is likely not listed as due based on the owner's manual is the transmission fluid. If it is an automatic transmission, it is a very good idea to replace the fluid and clean the filter ever 30-40,000 miles.He can make his own decisions. However the only piece of information he really needs to know is the timing belt is past its design life, and if it snaps it will turn into about $3000 in damage to the motor.
It seems your friend is a gambling man. The belt should have been changed about 4 years ago. At this point if it breaks the cost to repair it (new or rebuilt motor) would be close to the book value of the Odyssey. So, at this point he might as well roll the dice and see how long it lasts.
If he doesn’t have the money for a new car, or a $3,000 repair bill. Perhaps the $600 for a timing belt job would be money well spent.
If he is neglecting the timing belt, then I doubt he has had the transmission serviced every 30K miles either, if at all. Since the 2000 Odyssey is prone to transmission failure I’d say just let this ride and see what happens.
While he isn’t putting money into maintaining his van, he should be saving up for another car that is about 1 or 2 years in the future.