Timing Belt Maintenance Could Save You Thousands

Many car owners are not aware of the importance of changing their camshaft timing belt. Because it is one of the most costly service items on their car or 4wd some car owners try to put it off until another day.

If you think changing your camshaft timing belt can wait, you would be wrong. A broken timing belt could wreck your engine.
It would be a terrible thing to spend thousands of dollars repairing the engine instead of hundreds to replace the timing belt.
On some engines when the camshaft timing belt breaks the engine stops and no further damage occurs.

This would be inconvenient and possibly dangerous especially on a wet, stormy night in the middle of the freeway or you were making a turn in front of oncoming traffic.

However, most modern engines using a timing belt are known as interference fit engines. Inside these engines are pistons pumping up and down and valves opening and closing just above them. The pistons and valves share the same air space at different times but they never touch. If the camshaft timing belt breaks the critical piston to valve timing is lost and the pistons smash into the valves. In most cases this disaster will cost around $3000 to $5000 to fix, but in some cases it will be much more.

It has been estimated that the camshaft timing belt turns the camshaft about 70 million times every 100,000 kilometers traveled. A camshaft timing belt will break without warning, so don't try to squeeze every last kilometer out of it.

At Progressive Auto Care, we say change your belt at the manufacturers recommended intervals. It just might save you an expensive and unnecessary repair bill.