What’s a timing belt, and does my car have one?

By Brian Klaubert

What’s a timing belt, and does my car have one? Well, a timing belt is a rubber belt with rubber teeth on it. It keeps the top half of the engine perfectly synchronized with the bottom half of the engine. If the belt breaks or slips, the bottom half can damage the top half in just a few seconds.

Does your car have a timing belt? If your vehicle has a 4-cylinder engine, or is an import, it probably has a timing belt. Some supposedly domestic vehicles are really imports with a domestic name tag, so those vehicles also have timing belts. How can you tell if your car has a timing belt? Look in your vehicle owner’s manual in the maintenance section. You can also ask where you regularly have your car serviced. They will know or can look it up in a moment.

If you have a timing belt, it should be replaced at the manufacturer recommended interval. As mentioned above, if the belt breaks you can do several thousand dollars of damage in just a few seconds. In the early 90’s the recommended replacement interval was every 60,000 miles. In the mid-90’s the interval was increased to 90,000 miles. Beginning in 1999 most timing belt driven engines went to a 105,000 mile interval. It is the belt design change that increased the mileage, not the year the belt was made. So if you have a 1994 and put a new timing belt on in 2003, it still needs to be replaced every 60,000 miles.

Most dealers and garages will advise you to replace the water pump and several seals on the front of the engine when you replace the timing belt. This is entirely your choice, provided they are not currently leaking. They advise you to do this because of the potential to take advantage of overlapping labor.

Most cars with a timing belt use the timing belt to drive the water pump. If you look at where the timing belt is, you can see that it is not usually a very easy place to get to. If you only replace the timing belt, and a few thousand miles later the water pump begins to leak, the timing belt must be removed again. If the labor to replace just the timing belt is $200 to $300, the incremental labor to replace the water pump at the same time is usually $30 to $50 dollars. If you have to replace the water pump later, the total water pump labor will be $230 to $350.

An important consumer tip to keep in mind is that if you are replacing the water pump because it is leaking, there should not be an additional labor charge for replacing the timing belt at the same time. The timing belt usually has to come off to replace the water pump. A similar labor synergy exists with the front seals on the engine.

If you are replacing your timing belt as a preventative measure, and your water pump or oil seals are not leaking, it should be your choice whether you replace them at the same time. It is also your responsibility if you choose not to replace them.

Brian Klaubert owns Christian Brothers Automotive – Hamilton Mill on Hwy 124 in Dacula. They are 2004 winners of “Best of Gwinnett” in both the Gwinnett Daily Post and Gwinnett Magazine.