Timing belt question for those who had a stock one

[cooltool]

I just got my Aveo about a month ago and have been reading about timing belts going out. My car is a 2004 5speed and has 89k miles. Last owner said the timing belt hasn't been replaced yet but he's not sure since he didnt have the car that long. Did the stock cheap belts just rip out of nowhere? Or did they show signs of wear? I'm about to check mine out this weekend before I lose my engine and join the club lol

[ontarian_frog]

Earlier models, like the 2004, were known to blow a belt at or before 60k-ish miles. I think they had quality issues with the belts around 04-05, because in 06, they dropped the 30k miles inspection requirement for warranty. I'm sure at 89k that the stock belt isn't on, but just to be sure, I'd change it since it is already close to needing a new one anyway.

[cooltool]

Yea good point lol. Guess I'll change it one of these days. Just looked at it and it looks pretty good. Doesn't look like it's cracking or anything. But I just notice it needs a valve cover gasket and the ones that go where the plugs go. Has lots of oil in the plugs ): that explains my gas mileage lol. I was averaging 36mpg 50/50 city highway on my civvic hx

[Sofes]

Understand the timing belt is to be replaced at 60,000 miles/ about 100,000km.

Does the schedule to replace timing belt takes into consideration of the age of the vehicle? For example, we will change our engine oil at 10,000km or 6 months which ever is earlier. So if at 6 months but the vehicle has only made 5000KM, we still proceed to change the oil. Does that applies to timing belt as well?

[thehunterooo]

Not as much, some belts should be changed based on time, but timing belts on the 1st gen aveo should be done every 60k miles, though, there have been some that have gone 120k miles on the stock belt, it is not something you should be afraid about if you follow the 60k mile rule. If you like the car and plan on keeping it, I would go ahead and change it, I doubt it was changed if I had to gamble on it. Most people do not have issues with this if they follow the book, but when they do not, you will read about it here

[snrusnak]

^ My wife's aveo has 105,000 miles and I think it has the stock belt (bought used). It is a 2004. I'm changing the belt this or next weekend to be safe, the 4 peice kit grom gates (belt, idler, tensioner, and water pump) and a new serpentine belt I think only cost me like $100-$150. I'll probably spend the whole saturday working on the car. My valve cover gaskets around the plugs also leak...

[snrusnak]

To the OP, if you're pretty handy, this job isn't so bad, I just did it yesterday and it went (fairly) well. There are a few write ups/how to's I found (one on this site) that were very helpful and very good. If you want I can email you them to help. Also, there are a few things that I got hung up on.....I REALLY struggled without the special water pump tool....I got it done (barely) but I almost gave up and it took literally hours with pliers trying to get it done. I HIGHLY recommend either spending the dough on the special tool, or buying the correct size crow foot wrench which should work just as well (will do that next time and save about $100 over buying the special tool). Also, my impact gun wasn't powerful enough to get the crank bolt out....and even if it was I needed a way to hold the engine from turning while I torqued down the bolt after the job was done...I found an access hole to the flywheel that I used an allen wrench to hold the flywheel and that worked like a charm. The only other thing that gave me issues is changing the water pump. I did it without removing the cam gears and rear plastic timing belt cover. I fought this for about an hour but was able to get it done, I thought it was impossible to get the old pump out for the first 30 minutes, and thought the plastic would break, but it didn't, and after figuring out the precise way to get it out the pump did come out. Getting the new WP in was much easier (as I figured out now how to position it).

Good luck and let me know if you want any help, it's all fresh in my head....not too hard but the WP is a PITA, you really do need that WP tool, and the crank bolt(easy but need to block the flywheel from turning). Everything else was very easy...

[AnouraTheMarsupial]

mine went out before 60000...... it's not hilarious at all
it does create opportunity for an engine swap/upgrade...