Regular vehicle maintenance such as oil changes and filter replacements are areas where most customers are pretty good at staying on top of. However, do you know if your vehicle is timing belt or timing chain driven?

Most car manufacturers recommend timing belts be replaced at 80,000 to 90,000 mile increments. This is one area where you don’t want to roll the dice. If a timing belt brakes or “skips a tooth” it could have grave circumstances on your vehicles engine. When a timing belt brakes it will leave you stranded and require, at minimum, a valve job or a new engine. This will cost you thousands and may be more than what your vehicle is worth. What’s worse, if you’re still making payments on your car, you will have no choice but to do fund the money for a new motor or valve job.

Timing Belt driven cars fall into two categories; interference motors and non-interference motors. The interference motor is the most common and is the one that will wreck your motor without you changing your timing belt at the required interval. Car manufactures developed the interference motor to give you more compression and performance. However, this is done at a cost of giving you no room for error when it comes to timing belt maintenance.

When you’re due for a timing belt replacement, it means you’re also due for a water pump (which is timing belt driven), thermostat, and a tune-up (spark plugs, etc). Any shop not performing all these necessary maintenance items in addition to the timing belt replacement are doing you a disservice and will result in additional costly repairs shortly after.

We at Phelan Express Automotive Repair and Smog are the only ASE Blue Seal Certified Shop in the High Desert and have Master ASE Technicians on site to perform timing belt repairs and replacements professionally using Factory OEM parts. Call us today and ask us if you’re due for a timing belt replacement.