Take the cover off and turn the engine with a spanner looking at the belt. Look for any cracks on the belt either side. Most likely you can run it many more miles than stated.
As I will probably keep the car for at least another 6 months I suppose I had better get it done or I'll be worrying about it now..
That's possibly the worst piece of advice I've seen posted to this group, ever.
For the sake of throwing £100 at a local garage and having the belt done, you'd like to run the risk of a snapped belt and trashed top end?
It's not just what the belt looks like that can be an issue - I've known of cars with belts looking only a few thousand miles old that have snapped because the owner has gone over the change interval, but there's also the tensioners etc, which are often the most likely cause of belt failure.
This reminds me very much of my conversation with Fords about the timing belt on my fester...
I spoke to my little garage and they reckon =A3160 all in for the timing belt, they said they'd seen another fiesta and a focus in recently for the same thing.The Focus's had gone completely and therefore a =A3700 bill for the owner and the Fiesta they just caught in time as the pulley (?) was almost gone @ 50000 miles. He said they guarantee the belt for 100k but not the pulley!! I've booked it in for Friday.
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