Should I change the timing belt?

Bugalou · Apr 15th, 2004, 08:28 PM

I bought a whole lot of goodies for my 2 week old 88 pulsar(ca18de) and put em on ,today..its now sporting new NGK plugs,new fuel filter,air filter,PCV valve,thermostat,valve cover gasket(front one leaks)..this weekend I'm going to put the rest of the goodies in.. two new front struts(with new mounts,bushings..etc..), ball joint on driver side,brakes pads,new tie rods both sides,a new driver side axle with boots(boots were all split and had no grease at all in em)...I also bought a timing belt , now I looked in the Chiltons book to see how hard it would be to put it on and it really looks like a nightmare(and I'm no ace mechanic here)...my car has 125,000 miles on it, do I really need to change it?...whats the general mileage when a timing belt goes?

Dave

Myetball · Apr 15th, 2004, 08:39 PM

I'd change it. Would make a nice weekend project for ya. With that many miles you would be well advised to put a new water pump on while you got it torn apart. You may find you'll want to replace the drive belts once you get them off and find out what they look like.

BennittoMallito · Apr 16th, 2004, 09:52 AM

I'd say change it. I had mine done with around 13X k miles, and it was wafer thin. My mechanic showed me.

It's not easy though. I'd advise you to either wait for next weekend, or just roll over to your local boy on Monday, and pony up a few bux.

I also had my wp replaced along with timing belt

Bugalou · Apr 16th, 2004, 03:58 PM

How much did he charge you to change it?...do you have the Ca18DE engine?... I really don't think I can handle that job , I have big hands and a little brain : )..

B11sleeper · Apr 16th, 2004, 04:04 PM

i would change as many of the parts as you can afford. no harm will come from changing the water and oil pump and timing belt too early. especially if you have the engine out / or are doing other work. AND if you are paying someone to do these things, then the cost in labor to go back in to the engine is way more.

Myetball · Apr 16th, 2004, 04:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bugalou

How much did he charge you to change it?...do you have the Ca18DE engine?... I really don't think I can handle that job , I have big hands and a little brain : )..

Bennito is in South Africa so I think he pays a little less than we do

A timing belt job by itself is usually in the $150-200 range...could be more. Most of that is for labor. If you add in water pump, thermostat, drive belts, and anything else that may need replacing you're cost at the local mechanic will go up considerably.

BennittoMallito · Apr 18th, 2004, 07:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bugalou

How much did he charge you to change it?...do you have the Ca18DE engine?... I really don't think I can handle that job , I have big hands and a little brain : )..

I paid $103 for the timing belt, water pump, a new set of cam cover seals, and labor.

Of course I had to have the engine comepletely re-built 3 weeks later. For the whole long-block with the dynamic balance on the bottom end it cost $626.

Minus one timing belt and redundant labor, cause my mechanic felt like an ass-hat for not noticing where all my coolant was going. (hint: it wasn't a leaky wp)