FYI: Timing belts again! REad this!

Well I'll be darned. How ya doin Rick? krowbar here from the old Flist. Guys, this is the first guy I knew who personally fried a belt. There are others, and some never made it 7 years or 30K miles. YMMV. Glad to see ya here Rick.

 

I had been using one belt for about 40 years (on my belt-conversion 275 GTB) with no problems. I'd polish it with Armor All about every seven years (and the occasional JB Weld fix), but it finally needed to be replaced. But I found this cool replacement belt that was really easy to install and quite stylish to boot! (and it's adjustable!).
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OK, It depends on annual mileage, years, operating & storage temperature & driving conditions...

Gates says 5 years max.

Ferrari now says 3 years max or 30,000 Miles whichever comes first.

Beyond that it's all opinion(sigh).

 

When I bought my 81 308 GTSi it had 39,950 on it Jan 2005. The 30,000
sevice had been done 4/11/89. It was verified that the belts had been done
by who I bought from when he bought the car in 2001. He had never experienced belt failure from age. I insisted that the belts be done b4 I took the car. He called to let me know that I was right in having the belts done.
Turned out the front bank behind the AC had NEVER been done.
So 1 belt and roller had 39,950 and 24 years on them.
I intend to change them every 5 years, I drive from 1000 to 1500 miles a year.

Stephen

 

I've got an Ed Gault system sitting on my shelf that I plan to install when I rebuild my tired engine. Anyone want to make me an offer I can't refuse?

Bill

 

I've heard of this bit of schlock happening several times before. It's one to watch out for. Seems it's too much work for some jmokes to pull the A/C compressor...

 

Bill,
I'm signed up for one of smg2s new adjustable systems. If you'd put this up a year ago, I'd have gone for it. Good luck!

 

No problem Verell. It look's like smj2's system will be equivalent to Ed's system but with easier adjustability, plus it looks nicer.

Bill

 

And thats why most shops dont want customers in the work area. So you cant see what the arent doing.

 

a mechanic told me ferrari went to 3 years when they started the certified used car program. and it's mainly a money making move to help out the dealers. he recommended 5-8 years. i'm going with 8.