And I get a big laugh out of those who, rather than sticking to the subject, debate by making the argument personal by implying that the opposing debater is ignorant and laughs at the opponent. That’s pure arrogance.
That’s it. I’m done. Your kind of comments ruin the threads.
i found a 05 vue with the 3.5 motor. seller says it might need timing chain as it rattles. is it still running? with a bad “chain”? yes, i know it has a belt. maybe it has a broke rocker arm? or whatever honda uses. it is a sohc motor and has a somewhat complicated setup in the rocker area. i pulled the heads off my 03 v6 vue with the opel v6 motor. have not done a honda motor
saturn ecotec 4cyl? ask any owner of timing chains
Back to the Odyssey. I searched and found the Owners Manual online. It seems to say that the 60,000 rule is only for cars operated in extreme heat or cold. Otherwise there is a “Maintenance Minder” that pops up messages on the display telling you what is needed, when it’s needed. I could not find a specification for a particular number of miles.
There was a time when California required that the timing belt lasted more than 100,000 miles, and service intervals were 60,000 miles on older 49 State Miatas, but in California it was 105,000 miles. Did they really install different belts in California cars? That’s hard to believe.
Service intervals are a calculated number, designed to change the belt while some high percentage are still working. That number may be 99% for the rest of the world and 95% for CA, for example.
Dealers tend to change the service intervals from what is in the manual, probably to make more money, although their public reasons are different. I’d bet the CA dealers set the interval to 60k, or if they could not do that legally, just advised their customers to do so.
I have never bought or owned any car with an interference engine that uses a rubber timing belt, nor would I ever buy or own such a car. That is one of the considerations that I look into before purchasing. If the engine is interference, then it must use a timing chain, or I’m not buying it.
On older models with a non-interference engine, long intervals such as 100,000 miles were often specified. I always change my timing belts upon purchase of a used vehicle, and then every 10 years or 100,000 miles thereafter, but keep in mind that these are non-interference engines, and would not be damaged if the belt failed.
I have to respectfully disagree with Bill Russell’s comments about dealers changing the service interval to make more money. Maybe a few.
The main reason that some dealers change the interval is because many of the factory recommendations are way too long and that’s done for PR purposes. Nothing more. Hey, our car goes a 100k miles without needing to…yada,yada, yada.
Do you really think there is such a thing as "lifetime automatic transmission fluid? Not for a nano-second unless you’re a hard core gambler.
Example. The used Subaru owner who contacted corporate Subaru wanting to know how often to change the fluid. He was told by the tech department to “change the fluid when it turns black and really smelly”.
At that point your transmission is barbecued.
A car owner is seriously supposed to believe this garbage?
Or the BMW 15k miles oil change intervals. We’ve seen how that worked out…
Or the Subaru which required replacement of both cylinder heads at 7k miles (not a typo…) because tight valve lash had chewed both valves and heads up. Recommended interval 100k miles +…
I guess we can’t really know the motivation behind the dealer’s recommendations. And I see your point about the manufacturer’s recommendations.
But we are stuck between a rock and a hard place. I don’t trust a dealer to pick the service intervals, and the manufacturer’s seem to be bogus. So how do we decide what the proper intervals are? The dealer doesn’t seem to publish his recommendations, the manufacturer does. But when I take the car in for, say, the 30k service, the dealer lists a number of items that are not on the manufacturer’s list. That is complicated by the normal/severe check point, where the definition of severe is very open-ended. But no one, when they bring a car into a dealer for routine service, is ever asked it their usage was “severe” or not.
Let’s just take one item of many, transmission service. Manual says inspect only every 30k, under severe, replace every 25k. I don’t regard my driving as severe, it is 80-90% highway. But since some of that is in a city (typically 2 miles), Subaru regards this as severe. But the dealer does not, as when I asked at 30k about the CVT, they said it was fine.
(Under Subaru rules, just about any driver qualifies as severe. If you ever drive in the winter or in a city or near the coast, that is severe)
Subaru extended their coverage on the CVT to 100k. so if it breaks at 99k, are they going to look for 4 CVT fluid changes and deny the warrantee when they see only 1? or 2?
I agree with the first part of your statement, but not necessarily the second part
For example, with our Ford trucks, the severe service schedule says to replace plugs at 60K . . . I don’t see a problem here. Doesn’t seem bogus to me.
Or other manufacturers, who say to change the coolant every 5 years. Again, doesn’t seem bogus to me.
I think the most prudent thing is to follow the severe service schedule for every vehicle.
One big exception being valve lash adjustment
You’re taking a HUGE risk in my opinion, by not servicing your cvt fluid every 25K. Fluid is relatively cheap, and it’s not difficult to perform a drain and refill.
going by your statement: “many of the factory recommendations are way too long and that’s done for PR purposes”
Re CVT fluid change, I think that has to be done by the dealer, and I am planning on having it done soon (I’m at 34k now). I asked the dealer about that previously. don’t remember the exact answer, something about check it at 50k.
That wasn’t MY statement . . . OK4450 said that . . . credit where credit is due
Not sure where you got that idea . . . I perform plenty of cvt fluid services myself, and I’m not the dealer. I use the factory fluid, but that’s about as involved as the dealer is. It’s pretty much as simple as draining and refilling a manual transmission, or a differential with fill- and drain plugs
sorry, old age creeping up on me, misread. Trying to watch the red sox game while typing
good info on the fluid change, I thought it was a complicated job that the dealer needed to do. Do you include the Subaru unit in those?
My daughters 02 saturn had a timing chain that broke, evidently the oil feeder to lubricate the chain failed. It has been a good car, and had a bud do a new top end and get it up to snuff for $1200. Sure is a lot to spend on a car not worth much more than that, but that was like a year ago, and at 135k miles still rolling. I looked at replacement cars, seemed like the entry point for something dependable was about $6k. I found a used car dealer I liked, would say we did new bearing, or new brakes, or trans and coolant service timing belt whatever was needed to give you a good used car with a 1 year guarantee we fix anything for the first year. The used car dealer has been around for decades, so I would trust them over the used car auction buyers put it on the lot to sell as is.