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My 2001 Honda Civic's manual indicates that my timing belt should be replaced every 110,000 miles or 84 months. I bought the car in July 2001 and have around 49,000 miles on it. A dealer mechanic said (when fixing a seat belt recall) that it is time to be replaced, but two local mechanics strongly suggested I wait due to the low mileage. I haven't had the best of luck with the dealer and am unfamiliar with the local mechanics outside of positive yelp reviews.

Does a timing belt wear more by mileage or time? I use the car for commuting and the climate here in northern California (Bay Area) is mild. I'm looking at about $800 parts/labor for the timing belt, tensioner, and water pump. Can mechanics inspect the timing belt to see if it actually needs replacing?

Ryan
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As they are made of rubber, belts begin to perish over time, and this weakens them. The constant flexing as the engine turns accelerates this weakening process. Eventually (if it weren't replaced), the rubber would split and the belt would snap - causing very expensive damage to your engine...

It is quite easy to visually observe a belt that definitely neeeds replacing, but very difficult to reliably say that it does not - and very few mechanics would be willing to say so - if they said "it's fine" and it snapped, you'd be pretty annoyed, and they'd probably lose their job!

General rule of thumb for timing belts is "if in doubt, replace it".

Nick C
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You don't weigh them against each other. Items are generally inspect or replace at x miles or y period of time, whichever comes first. This is what you need to do to keep the car within factory tolerances. Go outside of that range and you become a "test driver", which may not be an issue, but it could be for certain parts...

Brian Knoblauch
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