I have a 2000 CRV with 83,000 miles. Am planning to take a 2400 mile R/T from New York to Sarasota later this year. Change the belt before the trip or can I wait? What is approximate cost including water pump?
What does your owner’s manual say about changing the belt? It is XXX miles or Y years whichever comes first. You may not have the miles yet, but you are overdue for a change based on years. My '03 Honda manual says 7 years for my Civic.
You are 2 to 3 years overdue now, so change it now and don’t wait any longer. You are risking thousands of dollars in engine damage to save a few pennies.
Doesn’t the Owner’s Manual, and the repair manual, give the TIME CHANGE INTERVALS as 96 months (equals: 8 years). Let’s see: today is 2010, and 2000 subtracted from 2010 equals…equals…Oh, heck! You can do the math!
Gates, which makes timing belts and wants to sell as many as possible, says that the recommended interval between changes for your CRV is 105K miles. I’d drive it, but then that’s me. If you feel that enough TIME has passed you might consider changing it for your own peace of mind. Yours is an interference engine meaning that if the belt breaks, you will damage the engine. THAT fix is quite costly, probably $1200 to $1500 versus $400 to $600 if all the idlers and water pump are changed during a timing belt replacement as they should be.
See http://www.gates.com/downloads/download_common.cfm?file=428-1466_web.pdf&folder=brochure
You should have it done…about 2 years ago.
;-))
If you don’t have a time machine in order to have it done when it should have been done, then do yourself a BIG favor and have it done a.s.a.p.
If you are in the NYC area, then costs will be higher than in many other areas of the country, but you should be able to have the timing belt, the water pump, the serpentine belt, and all belt tensioners replaced for about $600.
While it is in the shop, find out what other maintenance procedures you skipped over the past few years, and have them done at the same time as the timing belt and related parts. What you have to start bearing in mind is that most maintenance procedures have a schedule that is driven by odometer mileage OR elapsed time, with the proviso, “Whichever comes first”. In the case of the timing belt, I believe that the schedule is 105k miles or 8.5 years, whichever comes first. All you need to do is to sit down with the Honda Maintenance Schedule (located in the Owner’s Manual, I believe) for a few minutes in order to see what needs to be done, and when it needs to be done.
In addition to maintenance items that are listed in the Honda maintenance schedule, there are at least 2 items that need to be done even if they are not listed. Every vehicle with an automatic transmission should have the fluid changed every 3 yrs/30k miles, whichever comes first. Even if you skipped the 2-3 fluid changes that should already been done, if you have the fluid changed now, you may be able to avoid transmission damage. (Please note that I did use the word “may”.)
Also, even if it is not listed, CR-Vs have a very quirky center differential that needs to have the fluid changed at least every 60k miles in order to avoid problems. Only the special Honda Dual Pump Fluid can be used.
Do it NOW!!!
It should have been changed three years ago. If it breaks you are looking at 3 to 4 thousand dollar of engine damage.
flags6262–Did you notice that you came to the party about 7 months late?
I REALLY doubt that the OP is still monitoring this thread for responses.
not really their fault. The board took a dive earlier and brought back several dead threads for no reason