I love my 2010 Acura MDX. In November it will be 7 years old. The local Acura dealership service desk person advised that because it will be 7 years old I would need to change the timing belt and possibly the water pump and serpentine belt, rough estimate between $1000 and $1300. I suggested that I might consider trading it in before November and he said that the dealership would subtract the cost to replace the belt from my trade in value. You can pay now, or pay at trade in... we live on an Island in the Pacific NW with a $200 round trip ferry ride to get to the next nearest Acura dealer or I can just trade it in on a new equivelant ford, Subaru, Audi or other vehicle. Not sure what to do. Our 2010 is paid for and other than it eats a lot of premium gas it is very comfortable.

 

Your dealership is right.
Timing Belt is done every 105K or 7 Years this is because age affects the belt more than mileage, rubber like to harden with time which creates cracks and finally snap. Sometimes depending on weather you won't have a single issue but still as per the service manual is time to do it.

 

I just did my 2010 with 55k miles. The original belt looked perfect. Rubber was pliable with zero cracks, could still read original label. A few months ago I replaced a Mitsuboshi belt on my 99 Avalon which was 9 years old also with 55k miles. It also looked brand new. I see absolutely no reason to change a quality timing belt, e.g. Gates Unitta and Mitsuboshi, at 7 years with less than 75k miles.

 

Belts form cracks on the inside and micro cuts on the belt plies that wont be visible to the naked eye.. Since these are interference engines a snapping belt will be a catastrophic failure, in many cases it will Total the car for the insurance company..

I bet Honda/Acura spent a couple of millions on R&D and realized when was the best time to swap a Timing Belt.. 7 years or 105K is a pretty generous timeframe/mileage to schedule the Timing Belt Service. Honda does not makes a profit out of this since is not a service that needs to be covered on the dealership to keep the warranty and a lot of original owners will have moved on to other cars before the Timing Belt service is due, Timing Belt is always a hassle to the new used owner. In this case is just normal wearable item that Honda clearly states in the Owners Manual when it has to be done so this is no surprise to anybody.

This is one of those Services you don´t want to second guess the Engineers at Honda.
Still is not like the Belt is gonna snap at the exact 105K/7 Years but you don´t really wanna bet on a 5000 bucks engine for too long.

 

Yeah, that is why I did it at 7 years, especially because it is interference engine. At our age, figured I would likely do this job only one time so why wait another year or two? I installed the Aisin kit plus OEM thermostat/coolant change. Even bought new OEM bolts for idlers.

 

I changed the TB on my 2010 at 6 years-6 months and 62,000 miles. I would have been confident going longer but figured at the time >> "why wait? I'll probably sell it at 10 years and so will need one at some point anyways."

I encouraged my service writer to replace the water pump if she thought it might be a good idea, but she said after looking at it, no reason to.

In retrospect, waiting another year would have been fine, but ultimately I made same decision Artbuc did. My repair costs on the car through seven years have totaled hmmmmmmm zero dollars so I don't want to complain about cautious maintenance, or risk stretching the intervals.

 

What about spark plugs and cables? When are we supposed to replace them?

 

There are no cables as we have "Coil on Plugs" the cables that goes into the Coils are not wearable items and are part of the Engine Main Harness, The Coils are replaced when they die which is not common either. Each Coil is around 60-90bucks but its very rare for one to fail from normal use.

Spark Plugs as per the Manual is every 100K but I advice you to do it every 60-70K as my OEM Denso Plugs were pretty corroded at 72K, Changing them gave me up to 1-2mpgs but I used NGK Laser Iridiums Instead.

 

No time limit on a timing belt, only the MID, which is @ 105,000 miles.
Another dealer rip-off.
Might want to read the owner's manual
Timing belt: The timing belt should be replaced at the intervals shown in the maintenace minder schedule.

 

It is true that the MM is not smart enough to give alerts based on time. However, before MM Honda said 7yrs/105miles. TB longevity did not magically improve when MM was introduced. Is it posssible that Honda rescinded its 7 month recommendation when they introduced the MM? I think it is possible because Honda went to the trouble to specifically call for brake fluid replacement every three years. If the 7 year TB interval were important, Honda would have added that to the OM right next to the brake fluid recommendation. I believe Honda engineers carefully reviewed all time based intervals when they developed the MM and concluded brake fluid and TB operation at extreme conditions were the only items that needed to be called out. I do not believe TB needs to be replaced at all based on time unless you have a very rare case of extremely low miles allowing you to hit 10-15 years way before 105k miles. However, considering our engines are interference, I chickened out. Bottom line for me, I believe our TB's can easily go 10-15 years or more unless they fail due to a related component failure such as seized WP bearing. I did mine because I am able to do it myself and enjoy wrenching as a hobby. I would have never paid someone to change my TB at 7 years/55k miles.

 

Realize MDX section, but thought I'd add, I changed mine, '04 TL a couple of weeks ago, 13+ years 102,000 miles, it was as new. Pictures are over on the 3G forum. Likewise, the tensioner, tensioner pulley, idler pulley as well as the water pump, no problems, no leakage. I even compressed the tensioner using a vise and pined it. Don't know why as I'll never use it again. While the drive-belt tensioner was out, decided to do a replacement as it made some sounds during the cold weather on start up, so easy exchange. The other item was that the hood struts were weak and the hood cracked me in the head when doing the job, not too happy. The hood probably hasn't been opened/closed more than a couple dozen times over the years, but UPS delivered new units yesterday, so did the replacement.

Dealerships, or at least some of them, have schedules that in no way resemble the factory recommended maintenance schedule, but just want to make additional money through non needed service.

 

There is no need to change the belt nor the water pump with 37,000 miles. I always replace my belt T-belt and water pump at 100k regardless of years. I have always own'd a Honda/Acura. The dealer is ripping you off.