1995 Civic Timing Belt Replacement

I think most feel the tensioner need not be done every timing belt change, but certainly by about every second or even third.

I agree with folks who say to do the crankshaft and camshaft oil seals (just under the sprockets, or thereabouts. The parts are a few dollars. The labor, maybe another hour for a skilled newbie.

Never heard of a particular brand of TB to use. For the water pump, I'd go OEM. You might want to do a mass order from

or Best prices on the net, usually, all OEM, and almost always much cheaper than the dealer.

My 91 Civic is on its original tensioner at 175k miles. I change it for the first time next year.

"AL" wrote

I would recommend changing your tensioner. Once they hit around 150,000 miles you're on borrowed time. Sometimes they give a little warning noise, most times they don't. The tensioner is operating in a high heat environment with very little cooling. The grease in the bearing gives up and dries out. My 95 Civic's tensioner at 192,500 was as dry as a bone......Replaced this week! The consequences of a frozen tensioner is likely a destroyed engine on a honda. A locked up tensioner will burn out the belt (due to friction) in short order. The big reason I have been on this timing belt "trip" is I lost my timing belt on my 89 Mazda MPV V6 van (with only 35,000 miles on the belt). On Dec 25th, 2004 the engine died with no noise, 250 miles from home, due to a locked up timing belt idler pulley(174,000 total miles on the van). At 139,000 miles, everything felt fine. The belt destroyed the hdraulic tensioner, made the crank seal leak, and destroyed the belt covers. It killed my Christmas Break. But the van had a non-interference engine, so it's still running today. It ended up being my very first post on mpvclub.com 89-98 forum. What a story that was!