At the start of this year I was thinking about timing belts since I had my Toyota's belt changed 6 months earlier (interval on my car is 5 years or 60K miles - I had it changed at 5 years with 29K miles) - the owners manual for the Mazda 323 just had 60K miles but no mention of age. The car at this point had done 40K miles and was nearly 5½ years old.
We rang the dealer to ask when this should be done as it wasn't done at the previous service (6 months earlier) - they said it was due to get changed at the next service (6 months later). I was concerned however and I booked it in to get it done - it got done end of January.
Now... The wife's car died on Friday, pulling away in queued traffic. When attempting to restart it, it just makes a whinging/spinning noise. It got towed away, mechanic reckons it's the timing belt or tensioner, that's what I initially thought but I discarded that reason because it had been changed.
So, this belt (or tensioner) seems to have lasted under 4 months and about
4000 miles. Lot's of searching on the internet seems to point at the engine being a non-interference type (no valve damage should occur).Even just the replacement of the belt (mostly labour) is around £250-£300 - assuming no engine damage.
I've no idea if the tensioner was replaced at the same time as the belt. Nor do I know as of yet whether it's the belt or tensioner that has failed (should find out on Tuesday).
Now, who should foot the bill?????
(if belt failed) I can see the dealer spouting that the belt was fitted correctly and has been fine for nearly 4 months. (if tensioner failed) I can see the dealer spouting that it's common for the tensioner to fail (when I had my Toyota's belt changed - the (different) dealer handed my car back to me with the tensioner broke, then tried to charge me £100 for a new one. They eventually sorted it for free - but even then I was told that it's common for old tensioners to fail on new belts - WTF wasn't the tensioner replaced as a matter of course then?).