When should a timing belt be changed on a '99 Breeze 2.4L?

What does the owner's manual say on the severe service schedule?

Depends on what the consequences of a failed belt are.

--scott

I don't have a manual. :(

My book says 102,000 for severe service and 105,000 for normal.

You can look all you like. A good belt will look just like a bad one, unless there is a unique problem.

m6onz5a wrote in news:0178be52-8c6a-4f6b-b8f9- snipped-for-privacy@r23g2000vbp.googlegroups.com:

A visual normally tells you little to nothing. Belts generally fail because the fabric carcass weakens, especially where the teeth are secured to the carcass. You can't see that weakening by eye.

Have you checked the auction sites for an Owner's Manual?

The 100,000 service came about because California law requires it. No engineering changes. Same parts. I you drive like granny and your engine is a freewheeler, you should be ok.

60,000 miles = 100,000 kilometres

Bret wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@40tude.net:

That was VERY good! And irrelevant.

No I think it is a possibility.

Bret wrote in news:1qo8g7vzkwh06$. snipped-for-privacy@40tude.net:

You think /what/ is a possibility?

That the mechanic looked in a service book that gave the spec in metric.

Gates says:

100,000 or 105,000 with an asterisk. That means Interference Engine. You belt breaks, chances are you valves do, too....

your owners manual is right.

absolutely not.

vs:

depends on the engine. with the honda d-series, it's relatively rare for valve strike to be a problem for instance, even though it is an interference engine.

i've bought several hondas cheap over the years at rock bottom prices because of feared engine damage. none have turned out to have any problems at all. when the belt lets go, it seems the cam snaps to one of the 4 positions where valves are at a less than peak opening and the engine can freewheel.

That looks worn to me.

So it is.

Hello, and I'd still try to find one but beware. A little of my own experience from some years back with a car I no longer have:

I had purchased a used low-mileage (~10k) 1991 Chevy Lumina Z-34. I loved this car and the incredible horsepower it developed from its 24 valve DOHC six. The unusual engine design borrowed the lower half of another non-DOHC GM engine and as such had both a timing chain (lower half) and a timing belt (upper half). The belt and chain were linked via an intermediate shaft (where the camshaft goes on the non-DOHC engine).

My owner's manual said the belt should be "checked" for wear at 60k miles. But to perform this check the engine would have to be torn down somewhat to observe the belt. So I opted not to do this. The belt broke at ~81k miles. Well, in a sense it didn't actually break; a number of the belt ridges that make contact with the cam sprockets simply got sheared off. A new belt was about $65 with over $800 in labor. The engine never did run quite right after the repair and gas mileage was horrible. Some friends familiar with the Z-34 warned me about the difficulty in getting all four camshafts properly aligned. Anyway, I was in an accident shortly thereafter and the car (thank goodness not me or my passenger) was totaled.

The only other engineering design flaw IMHO in the Z-34 engine was the alternator location - too inaccessible with too little air flow to keep it properly ventilated (even though it had its own dedicated electric cooling fan!)

So I'm hoping your situation will prove less traumatic. Sincerely,

Good. I'm looking for an unmolested* '91-93 Civic DL hatch. Find me a good one for ~$500...

*"For Sale: 1992 Honda DL with 1.8 swap. Only 2,000 miles on swap...."

Um, WHY?!?!?!

you can find them. you have to surf your local craigslist almost hourly though. and be patient. and then get your ass out there with the cash asap when one shows.

there's nothing wrong with a swap if done right - i've done it for friends, and the results have been huge fun. but in a world where simple things like changing drum brake shoes seems too hard for most technicians*, getting a swap done right does admittedly make for a rare occurrence.

• 100% of the used drum rear civics i've bought or have worked on for friends have had screwed up rear brakes if the shoes have been changed. 100%. and i'm pissed because i've just had to repair yet another one for a friend with a screw-up done by a shop.

for some reason, brake techs seem to find it impossible to service honda drum rears without either puncturing a piston rubber, bending the main return spring, or disabling the self-adjusting mechanism. the only ones that have been fully functional are the ones still on their original shoes, and given that oem honda shoes last a good 150k miles, there's no reason most of them should have been touched in the first place.

bent return springs particularly irk me. if they've been bent, most commonly elongated, their resistance to piston pressure is too low, thus they brake too hard, and the front/rear proportioning effect gets screwed up. crazy thing is, people use vise grips and mangle these springs when in reality, if you know what you're doing, you don't need to use tools at all - they come off by hand, no damage!

and the self-adjust mechanism? techs always grease them! and they always get stuck when greased!

i don't have a high opinion of the brake service industry when it comes to civics.

What in CA law requires it??

Thanks to the increase in gas prices, the price of even bombers has almost doubled. Every time gas gets pricey, even the worst among Hondas and Toyotas go way up in price.

Obviously, I have a "Hachiroku", but the body is falling off the car. I missed an SR-5 version (the conversion is easy) by a matter of about 12 hours. Yeah, gotta keep watching!

I am a factory rep and cover a fairly large, but close to home area, with an '89 626. Nice, but I want a hatch. Or an Imprezza wagon...