Timing belt change, how often?

H

hyouriittai

Sleepy Samurai
:
'94 Infiniti G20
How often should the timing belt be changed on the Protege 5? On most cars, my understanding is that it's at 60k or so.

PS, if there's a general maintenance forum somewhere on here, don't hesitate to send me there. Thanks.
 
100k is the expected life of your average belt. This does NOT mean you should wait until then. 60k is the best time to change it to insure your car stays on the road for 60k more. Belts breaking is never a fun time.
 
Mr. Win said:
100k is the expected life of your average belt. This does NOT mean you should wait until then. 60k is the best time to change it to insure your car stays on the road for 60k more. Belts breaking is never a fun time.
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Thanks, I appreciate the reply. I've got my deposit down on a P5, and I'm stoked to start taking some proud ownership.
 
Mr. Win said:
TheMAN explained it to me like this... that fine and dandy if we all drove our cars like grandmothers but we don't. Spend the money... love the car.
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Different strokes I guess. Sounds like a waste of money to me.
 
Do the maintenance the mfgr recommends. You could change your oil 'daily' but it won't help/worth the cost.

The engnie is non-interference - if the belt breaks - no engine damage. So it is not nearly as critical as an interference engine.
 
P-Funk! said:
Do the maintenance the mfgr recommends. You could change your oil 'daily' but it won't help/worth the cost.

The engnie is non-interference - if the belt breaks - no engine damage. So it is not nearly as critical as an interference engine.
Click to expand...

I'm sure this I going to start a big thread but our engines are interference engines its been posted several times, reps from mazda claimed it is

but correct me if I'm wrong :(
 
Last edited:
Matthew1785 said:
I'm sure this I going to start a big thread but our engines are interference engines its been posted several times, reps from mazda claimed it is

but correct me if I'm wrong :(
Click to expand...
you're right. i'll be the one to tell you. my timing jumped a while back, and bent all valves in my head. tell me i'm wrong. INTERFERENCE ENGINE.
 
in the event that one of us doesnt change the belt and the thing snaps while driving, do the Mazda 4-cylinder engines have an emergency cut off for the engine, similar to the Honda Civic engines?
 
maskedSONY said:
in the event that one of us doesnt change the belt and the thing snaps while driving, do the Mazda 4-cylinder engines have an emergency cut off for the engine, similar to the Honda Civic engines?
Click to expand...

We sure do. It stops running right there. The emergency cut off is called 'a broken timing belt'. ;)
 
wow! we must be making a connection.

well its good to know that Mazda has that feature. I can't imagine the damage inflicted on an engine without the timing belt. :(
 
P-Funk! said:
Do the maintenance the mfgr recommends. You could change your oil 'daily' but it won't help/worth the cost.

The engnie is non-interference - if the belt breaks - no engine damage. So it is not nearly as critical as an interference engine.
Click to expand...

Yeah, But that does not mean that you should just drive it till it fails..
 
Brian MP5T said:
Yeah, But that does not mean that you should just drive it till it fails..
Click to expand...

Oh no! That is NOT what i meant.

I just meant engineers (just like ME) go through great lengths to determine the maintenance frequency and then 'group' the maintenance into sets (i.e the table in the manual). Using a curve - -they determine when the first significant onset of failures would be expected and then apply some engineering conservatism (for 'reliability reputation') to determine the change interval. Changing anything before the mfr's recommendation is just more expensive and it won't buy you any more reliability in any significant way.

Now, when the engineers are wrong, (oh yes, it happens!) you see it in statistically signifcant 'premature failures' (like our EGR valves coking up, but not the VTCS screws which were just assembled wrong). So far - no failures of the timing belt in any significant number have occured. Onsey/twosey out of a 100K (? just guessing) cars produced is not significant.

I could bore you to death with details upon request. Sigma Math is Involved!
 
Sigma Math is well below my realm, I am a Defence Geomatic Tech. Everything that goes out the door has an accuracy assesement, sometimes down to the 0.05 Meter range on a 1:10,000 Scale Map. I eat that s*** up.

I was not suggesting that everyone just change it for nothing. I believe that the original post was answered By Corwin at 100,000 Km, and then further backed up again, I also believe the suggestion was made to simply run the car beyond the regular interval, which was stupid.

The way I see it, If my belt has 50,000K on it and I change my cams or head gasket, that ******* belt is being changed at the same time, Everything is open and the belt is a mere $30.00. Money and Time in the bank IMO. If the belt is approaching 100,000Km, time to book it.
 
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