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| Thread ID: 139477 | 2015-05-08 11:11:00 | Car mechanics - is this common? | Nomad (952) | PC World Chat |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 1400321 | 2015-05-08 11:11:00 | Dad has this (1998) Camry that has 230k on the odometer. He bring it in b/c it was sluggish, mechanic found (1) spark plug that needed replacing. As I told them, they asked the mechanic about the cam belt. Mechanic said it should be part of scheduled maintenance to replace but since you are not driving a lot of miles it's not essential. It is not a interference engine as I understand. Is this common practice? | Nomad (952) | ||
| 1400322 | 2015-05-08 20:48:00 | Not driving a lot of miles? Like the cambelt says, well hey we just pop down to the shops now and then, I'll not break? Cambelts break without warning. Sure you could get more miles out of it than the recommended, but do you want to risk it? |
pctek (84) | ||
| 1400323 | 2015-05-08 21:48:00 | Does the Camry have a cambelt? All the later models I believe have chains. If it has a cambelt, as pctek says. it could go anytime and you will be in for a motor rebuild - big bucks. | Bryan (147) | ||
| 1400324 | 2015-05-08 21:49:00 | Non interference probably means the valves wont mash into the pistons when the belt breaks. When it breaks is like Russian roulette. | prefect (6291) | ||
| 1400325 | 2015-05-08 22:56:00 | mechanics thinking they are doing the owner a favor :( the other problem, while not catastrophic, is cam belt stretch. that throws out cam timing and can play havoc with sensors. especially if its got cam sensors as well as crank sensors. should always change them to schedule and if its a rarely used car it should be changed on age as well. rubber deteriorates with age especially with heat. |
tweak'e (69) | ||
| 1400326 | 2015-05-08 22:58:00 | Ask a Toyota mechanic. As Prefect has explained what non-interference means, there may well be no damage, but if I was you or the car owner I would want to be sure. Surfer Joe, Where are you? | Richard (739) | ||
| 1400327 | 2015-05-08 23:26:00 | I had a cambelt break on an Opel Vectra I used to have. It apparently was a "non-interference" setup, and there was no damage at all. | Greg (193) | ||
| 1400328 | 2015-05-08 23:46:00 | 230K. Possibly had 3 timing belt changes. Recommended interval changes can be 60 to 80K. Max I have heard from a mechanic is 110K at a "stretch". Find out the recommended interval for the car. If it is 60K, then a change should be done within the next 10K. Sometimes it's advised to replace the water pump every 2nd belt change, since invovles essentially the same work to replace it. | kahawai chaser (3545) | ||
| 1400329 | 2015-05-08 23:51:00 | Does the Camry have a cambelt? All the later models I believe have chains. If it has a cambelt, as pctek says. it could go anytime and you will be in for a motor rebuild - big bucks. Yes, I have a 1999 Camry, just clocked over 333,333 kms and it has a cambelt. As a believer in preventative maintenance, I've replaced the cambelt 3 times. Cambelts break without warning. Sure you could get more miles out of it than the recommended, but do you want to risk it? Yup, even though I'm onto my third replacement belt, it's by no means a panacea. But I've at least reduced the chances of a major disaster happening in the engine dept. I hope. (Crosses fingers, touches wood, and other superstitious nonsense). :2cents: |
WalOne (4202) | ||
| 1400330 | 2015-05-09 00:15:00 | I have a 2002 V6 camry and it has a belt. It's almost at 100k so I started enquiring about when to replace. The official Toyota recommendation was hard to find but for my model at least is 100,000 miles or 160,000 km. My online searching found a lot of people who have not bothered and gotten double that and still going fine. Some have had it break and had no damage to the engine, but I find no mention of it ever breaking early. There are plenty of people who advocate changing the belt every 100,000 km to be safe and there's certainly nothing bad about that Idea but I plan to wait at least to 150,000 myself by which time the car will have no value at all with the mileage I do. I think the 4 cylinder engine has a shorter recommended belt replacement but I wasn't researching that one. One thing, a lot of the recommendations including from toyota mention replacing various other parts while you're at it, I don't remember all of it but the water pump was one of them and I think maybe some seals?. The theory is they tend to fail in a similar time frame and require you to pull the engine apart again at additional cost so it's cheaper overall to do it all at once. |
dugimodo (138) | ||
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