Timing Belt

[breadstick]

Hi

I have a seat Leon with 75k on the clock and it has never had a timing belt change, i decided to get this done as i intend to keep the car for another year or so

My other half is giving me grief over spending money on it but i was told that if a timing belt snaps on a car you may as well park it in the scrapyard, i know very little about cars so am wondering am i doing the right thing?

[BRIGHT SPARK]

Vulcan...In the absence of relevant information ...its a 2005 1.8..;-

[marje]

Having a chain doesn't necessarily mean it will last the lifetime of the car. My son changed mine as it had stretched and was in danger of coming off altogether! I think the car had done about 115,000 miles though.

[Zacs-Master]

True. Cheaper makes do need the chains replacing.

[tonyav]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/23p5j5wzPtYflS7kFvmKVZf/bmw-deny-engine-failures-are-due-to-manufacturing-fault

[TWR]

good Link Tony, take heed Breadstick, It could last a week or it could go today it's as simple as that, I can understand your wife's comments ( Mine is the same regards car cost) but as said, if the belt does go, you might as well scrap it, regards buying another, think about it! you maybe starting again, look around for prices but "Do not cut corners" what I mean by that, Replacing an old Fan Belt, if the job is going to be done, get it done right as least then you know the car will be A1, If you can show your wife the results of can belt snapping from Youtube, show her.

[Hymie]

Whenever bhg481 is making any manoeuvre in a vehicle where the complete loss of power (from the engine) might result in a hazardous situation – he must be thinking of the thousands of components (the cam belt being one of them) that could fail, resulting in this condition at any moment.

[bhg481]

You are quite correct, Hymie. There are thousands of components in an engine but, fortunately, only a few of them are capable of causing the engine to seriously malfunction. Most of these components give early warning of failure, such as the engine being difficult or failing to start or, perhaps, cause misfiring or lack of power once the engine has started. Few components (a handful?) failing, the cam belt being one of them, will cause sudden, no-warning, catastrophic failure and will result in the engine stopping immediately. When a manufacturer (surely the expert on his product) is aware that such a component has a limited life and warns users to change it before its life-expectancy expires, only a fool would ignore that advice.
Again, you are correct, you can’t go around all the time worrying that your car will suddenly conk-out on you or have a major mechanical failure (and I don’t) but you can minimise the risk of this happening by servicing the car to the manufacturer’s specification. Remember that servicing costs are one of the parameters that many people consider when buying a car and reliability is another. It pays manufacturers to bear both these factors in mind when producing a service schedule for a vehicle.