H & R Tires & Complete Auto Repair would like to share what is perhaps the single most important maintenance item in a car’s engine is the timing belt. Realistically, a car’s timing belt is perhaps the one item whose failure could most likely mean the end for your entire engine.
A timing belt is a ribbed belt that is run in a specific setup on one side of a car’s engine to keep the crankshaft and camshafts timed properly. In essence, it is keeping the top half of your engine (valves) synced to the bottom half (crankshaft). If your car is 15 years old or older, it most likely has a timing belt. Some new cars, such as Audi and Honda, still use timing belts in their engines, but several manufacturers have switched to metal timing chains that are supposed to last as long as the engine. The surest way to determine if your car has a timing belt or not is to refer to the maintenance schedule in your owner’s manual. If there is no listing for timing belt service, your engine has a timing chain. The manufacturer’s recommended maintenance schedule for timing belt replacements differ between cars, but in general timing belts should be replaced every 60,000 miles or 5 years – whichever comes sooner.
A timing belt snapping can be catastrophic to your car’s engine. There are two types of engine timing configurations that employ timing belts: interference and non-interference. An interference engine means that the valve’s stroke and piston’s stroke occupy the same space in the cylinder at different times, so the timing belt keeps them from colliding with each other. If the timing belt snaps, the cylinder and valves will most likely hit each other, which most commonly causes bent valves but can also result in cylinder head or camshaft damage, and possibly piston and cylinder wall damage. It is possible to get lucky and not suffer any damage from a snapped timing belt on an interference engine, but very unlikely. On a non-interference engine, pistons and valves never occupy the same space, so if the timing belt snaps, no valve or cylinder damage should occur, and theoretically, replacing the broken timing belt will revert your engine to normal function. Owner’s manuals usually do not list if your car’s engine is interference or non-interference, so to make sure you should Google it.
Changing your car’s timing belt is not an easy job to do at home much harder than changing a set of wheels, and harder than basic bSet featured imagerake maintenance. The difficulty differs by vehicle, and depending on the vehicle, timing belt service may cost anywhere from $450 to several thousand dollars. However, doing it wrong, especially on an interference-type engine, can result in much more severe and expensive damage.
At H & R Tires & Complete Auto Repair in Whittier, we can let you know all about your vehicle’s timing belt and give you the best possible price for professional work. Our team of certified mechanics will work with you to determine whether your vehicle needs timing belt service and get your engine running smoothly again as quickly as possible. Call our professionals today at (323) 217-5569 if you would like to schedule an appointment.