Timing belt replacement

i would advise against allowing the dealer to do this! dealers screwed mine up twice. i jumped time and almost crashed my valves because they couldn't set the idler preload right. cost will depend on how complete of a job you wish to have done. it is customary to replace both the water pump and the balance shaft belt at the same time. the complete job is around 5 book hours of labor at what ever the shop rate is ($75 per/hr.) the belts are about $150 and $140 for the water pump. if ever the water pump fails, this all must be done over to replace it. if the balance shaft belt breaks, it often destroys the timing belt and ruins the valves/head when everything crashes. you need to understand the logic in doing it all while it is apart: no one is trying to rob you here. go to

follow the link and go to theengine section. there are complete insructions on doing the t-belt on a 4G63motor....not like you wish to attempt this (though it's not so tough.) justfamiliarize yourself with what you need to have done.

I would not advise anyone to do this job himself. The space around belts is so tight that you basically have to lift engine off the compartment to do this properly by the book. If you have some monkey skills you may try to jack up the engine but you need to put the car on the hoist. You risk for example that you contaminate belts with dirt or oil if doing it with engine in the car.

"I would not advise anyone to do this job himself."

huh, we do this all the time.....

It's fairly easy on a DSM. V6 is a little more difficult.

Well, I wish I lived in your neighborhood, maybe you would do this for sixpack ;-)

I would. It's really not that hard. I've done DSMs and 3000GT/VR4's. The DSM is child's play in comparison. 3K sucks because of the lack of room. Whomever DSMer said the 4 cylinder is hard, hasn't seen a VR4 engine. The worst thing you could do on a DSM was to get the balance shaft out of alignment...Well, maybe the driver's side motormount can be a ball breaker, but that's still not that hard.