Timing belt or chain-which is best?

nissans & bmws are veering more towards chains, in all the years of being a mechanic ive only ever seen one timing chain lunch itself & that was only on a mk1 fiesta.

timing belts now that's a different story...............

age seems to play a part, but I have seen belts let go a lot earlier then they should do, case & point Vauxhalls with the idler pulleys braking up. we never just fit a belt, most kits ( we use gates )come supplied with the belt, idlers & adjusters.

sadly customers just think *we* use the *its time to replace your timing belt* as just an excuse to make money from them, sure we are in business to make money, but believe it or not some garages including ourselves have their ( the customers ) interest at heart as well.

"David Wood" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@bt.com:

I once had a Volvo 740 I called my "test to destruction" car. The belt lasted over 200,000 known miles and was never replaced. It was a non interference engine though, so even if it did snap it wouldn't have been a problem.

Ford 1.8 diseasel has a nylon toothed tensioner that runs on front of belt, nylon teeth sharpened up with wear and chewed at belt or on a cold day tensioner would shatter and leavve belt to flail. Actually had 2 breakers in a row laugh out loud when trying to find a s/h head.

Chain should live a perfect well oiled life inside the engine but a look at Honda motorcycles from 1970- 1995odds would reveal that it can be a hard thing to get right. Chains eating their way out of cylinder blocks, eating tensioners and detonating engines, just making disturbing flapping sounds....

Harley with the primary drive chain that requires adjustment every 100 miles, ,handlebar adjuster available ;-)

Easy to access belt with tensioners made out of real materials would be my choice.

Adam

Those with sense are changing back to chains. BMW started the trend in about '91.

Belts tended to desirable due to their more refined sound. Older chain engines were easy to tell because of the racket they made.

Newer oil-pressure tensioned chains tend to be far more refined than the older ones, with the exception of those horrible 1.0 and 1.2 Ecotec engines.

So that will be why Rolls Royce engines have timing chains?

The first car I ever owned, which was a '50s MG Magnette, had an oil pressure chain tensioner.

Belts are quieter and lighter. Chains are stronger but it depends. Some chains do stretch over time and the tensioners can wear etc etc and when they do things get noisey. Now, the trick on Minis was to fit double row timing chains on double sprockets. Ok so the parts were heavier but the engines ran much more quietly.

Some manufactures do ir did make non-interference engines which meant that a failure was catastrophic but it still means you need to get the belt replaced. As you're at the mercy of a garage in general they'll charge quite a bit to get it fixed. As you say, some cars are easy to change the belt the others not so easy.

why not mention gear drive too?

Or triple connecting rod types?

Wasn't that the one that didn't have an oil change in something like 110,000 miles as well?

Just remind us how many miles you did in it, and how much it cost you in maintenence overall (very little, IIRC).....

Why is a duplex chain quieter?

"AstraVanMan" wrote in news:TRtUg.57958$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe3-gui.ntli.net:

That was the one. I bought it as a temporary get about with 100,000 mile on the clock. Got rid of it at 320,000 when a lump of metal on the M'way went through the bottom of it. Changed the clutch, front discs/pads, No oil changes, filter changes. Ran it up to rev limit as often as possible. I did a check on its number plate the other day. Looks like it's still running. Scrappy must have reprieved it ;-)

It wasn't quieter because it was duplex; it was just that the original sinle chain wore rapidly, then rattled. It lasted for ages like this but was bloody noisy. It was made worse by the fact that there was no tensioner.

In the dim, distant recesses of what I laughingly call my brain, ISTR that the duplex mod used a sprocket that had a groove for an O-ring. The inner part of the chain was in contact with this in a vain attempt to reduce the chain noise.

BTW, it wasn't just Minis. It applies to most (all?) A-series engines.

Chris

So BMW followed Nissan with the1990 Primera then.

The message from snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.co.uk contains these words:

Belt conversion kits are available for A-series engines.

I'm like that with all my cars. I've had a string of Sierra's over the years with unknown mileage so no idea if belt is past best or not, but its never been worth changing timing belt as cost of repair is more that half the price of the car (current Sierra £200, one before was £300 and lasted 5 years). I spend any maintenance money on vitals like tyres, brakes etc and have to chance the timing belt. So far I've been lucky and as the current Sierra will probably be my last I've got away with it. Next car will be a Mondeo 2 litre Zetec (97-99). They say the timing belt is good for 80,000 miles on those. Oh !!! the big change to FWD for the first time in my life !!!

bucket

Those little rubber rings could sue, you know.

Or a cheaper alternative with an MM, is to fit the front engine plate from a Marina, which has a tensioner fitted. You'll also need the Marina timing cover as well, as the original one doesn't have enough clearance for the tensioner. Mike.

Just to add to my previous post.If you want to make an MM even quieter, fit a Viscostatic fan from a Viva. The difference it makes is very noticeable. Mike.