I don’t think it’s a case of the belt in your Miata being far superior to the belt in your Acura, I think it’s a case of your incredible streak of luck with the Miata’s belt holding together after being on the car for 22 years. It’s pretty much a miracle that it hasn’t fallen apart and destroyed your engine yet. Unless you are looking for a reason to send your Miata to the crusher or have a few thousand dollars burning a hole in your pocket, you probably should stop pressing your luck with the Miata and have the timing belt replaced on it immediately. It could fail at any time and WILL cause a lot of internal damage to the engine when it fails. As for your Acura, plan on replacing that belt sometime in the next year unless you want to see how long it will last and don’t mind replacing valves and, possibly, pistons when it fails (a few thousand dollars worth of damage guaranteed, as with all other Honda engines), it’s your car and you’re welcome to experiment. I wouldn’t try to save money like this, though, nor by using anything less than premium unleaded in it, which also seems to be a common question here regarding cars like the Acura RL. Premium cars require premium prices to own, operate, repair, and maintain.
It’s not only the issue of engine damage; there’s also the safety issue. There are a lot of scenarios in which a broken belt could get someone (or multiple someones) injured or killed.
Pulling out from a stop sign in heavy traffic and getting rammed by someone when the car in question pops a belt…
Changing lanes in rush hour traffic and instantly losing all power with a Kenworth hot on the tail…
Startled surprise when an engine dies during a sharp turn and all power steering and brake functions disappear…
Ditto for steep mountain terrain…
The possibilities are endless and I’m not really surprised by the attitude about spending money to maintain a car. It’s quite common even on cars that are much higher end than that Acura.
There are people who will buy a brand new 100 grand Benz and totally neglect it and some poor soul will end up with it later.
I think you guys fell for a classic troll.
cigroller - Yes, people are answering, but they are also spending a lot of time worrying about how he responds to their advice.
Well I also have a 2006 Acura RL. 107,000 miles. Never changed the belt and it is true of the quote of $1,300 plus dollars. But I have also had friends who own 1996 Honda Accord with 220,000 miles and another who has a 2001 Honda Accord with 138,000 miles. Both said they have NEVER had their timing belts changed. And my girlfriend had a 2001 Honda Accord with 250,000 miles and never had hers changed. So It makes me wonder. What these manufacturers trying to do? I do keep my car serviced and will continue to do so, but like another person mentioned. Timing Belts use to be at every 60,000 miles then 90,000, and I had a 1999 TL which said do this service every 105,000 miles. So why is it the RL says every 60,000? Usually the Mileage to do so increase as the cars are made better. Makes me really think.
“Makes me really think.”
I think that the manufacturer tells you to change the belt at a certain time to make sure that it does not break. It could go a lot longer, and then again, it might not. Are you feeling lucky today?
“But I have also had friends who own 1996 Honda Accord with 220,000 miles and another who has a 2001 Honda Accord with 138,000 miles. Both said they have NEVER had their timing belts changed. And my girlfriend had a 2001 Honda Accord with 250,000 miles and never had hers changed. So It makes me wonder. What these manufacturers trying to do?”
Some of us can easily absorb the cost of catastrophic engine damage, and some of us can’t.
I think that observing appropriate cautions is a good idea in auto maintenance.
Local mechanic will do this for $500 max.
Timing belts will break or strip teeth off and do so without warning. My cars all have non interference engines so I usually allow them to go about 100K miles between changes. Even using 100K mile intervals I’ve had 2 timing belts break in about the past 15 years. If it were my car and had an interference engine I’d probably change the timing belt/tensioner/water pump about every 75K miles. I do enough driving that the miles accumulate before the time interval has elapsed. If you’re mechanically inclined and have tools this is something you can do yourself with the help of a Haynes or Chilton’s manual, but if it’s an interference engine you better be sure you know what you’re doing because if you set the timing wrong you could still be looking at extensive engine damage. One of my cars is very simple to work on without a lot of things in the way, I can change the water pump/timing belt in about 3-4 hours on it. The others have more things that have to be removed to get to the belt and usually takes 6-8 hours to do the timing belt/water pump, but that’s taking my time and stopping for a break whenever I’m ready. $1350 is a lot of money, but it’s nothing compared to $5000+ for a new engine and labor.
There’s a reason why I’ve never set foot in a casino or bought a lottery ticket; I don’t believe in risking something of value. The same applies to a timing belt replacement.
For every person who says they’ve gone X million miles without changing it and suffering no problems there’s plenty of others sitting on the roadside with a dead engine, borrowing money to fix that dead engine, and in general just being severely inconvenienced at the very least.