My Honda dealer recommends that I have the timing belt changed on my 2002 Accord, even though it only has 35K miles. I drive my car around town 4 days a week, and it is housed in a garage when not driven. I keep up with general maintenance.
The belt is 8 years old. if it breaks, your engine is destroyed…Honda does not charge extra for this design feature…
Thanks
Six years is the limit in my opinion and even that is a roll of the dice.
Some good friends of mine found this out after purchasing an as new, 4 years old, 50+k miles Honda Civic from the dealer.
Two weeks after buying the car the belt snapped and left them with a damaged engine about 10 miles east of Boise City, OK; referred to as No Man’s Land here in OK.
Not knowing of matters such as timing belts, this was their first vehicle with a T-belt and after that incident was their last.
Your owner’s manual wouldn’t tell you to change it if it wasn’t necessary. You’re probably already on borrowed time. If it breaks, you’ll be spending a few thousand dollars on a repair or a replacement engine.
Thanks. I obviously don’t know much about cars and have carried around (in my brain) some funky dogma about changing the T-belt at 90K.
“I obviously don’t know much about cars and have carried around (in my brain) some funky dogma about changing the T-belt at 90K.”
All the more reason to utilize the print materials provided by the car’s manufacturer.
In the glove compartment, you will find the Honda Maintenance Schedule, possibly contained in the Honda Owner’s Manual. Rather than having to guess about what maintenance needs to be done or when it needs to be done, everything that you need to know about maintaining the car is right there in print.
If you have not been using this maintenance schedule for the past 7-8 years, you may have succumbed to dealer suggestions for maintenance procedures that were not necessary, thus wasting your money. Then again, you and the dealership may have skipped really vital maintenance procedures (such as the timing belt), thus putting you in danger of expensive mechanical breakdowns. The only way to take control of the situation is to use the guide provided by Honda.
About 15 years ago, when the belt on my in-laws’ Civic broke, it cost close to $2,000 to have it fixed.
Just thought I’d make you think about it. Bent valves aren’t cheap.
Their car had about 85,000 miles on it, and the gosh-darned* service adviser told them it didn’t SOUND like it needed a new timing belt, so off they went. One week later, crack.
*Gosh-darned MIGHT not have been the first adjective that entered my mind. Just so you know.