Hello everyone!

After swapping out my tranny for an AV6 successfully, now the car is in need of some preventative maintenance. However, I am tired of fixing my car now and want to take a break and do it next summer as winter is coming soon.

I removed the TB cover and the belt looks mint. It's a Honda Gates TB. Rubber appears to look good and feels fine (not hard or brittle). I've read everywhere that it's way beyond borrowed time but I'm going to take a chance and feel lucky, punk. I'll hold it off until next year in the spring or summer. I don't expect to put on another 10,000 miles.

Anyone gone longer than 13 years personally here? I searched and searched but it's rare and most change around 100k or 7 years.

 

I have 164K miles on the original belt ('03 TL-P).

It's honestly one of those things that keeps me up at night. I live in the desert and garage my car so the belt should be in good shape but I personally am uncomfortable going this far.

I'll pop the cover off and give the belt an inspection and let you know how it is holding up. I plan to change it ASAP.

 

The longest I´ve seen is a "Supposed" 400K and 12yr old OEM Belt... I say Supposed because we can only count with the honesty of the Poster of such info.

 

I'm at 101K miles on the original timing belt in my '03 TL-S. I have not removed the cover to inspect it, but the plan is to replace it and everything else associated with it in the very near future because I don't want to keep rolling the dice much longer.

 

I forgot to say, for the record, I just broke the 100k miles barrier yesterday with the original TB. Probably closer to 14 years old if my 2002 was made in 2001. Sounds like I can sleep a little better now at night. I don't want my hard work doing tranny swap, fixing brake line (the rest are rusted pretty bad too and needs attention sooner rather than later) and seized rear caliper go to waste. I have lots of things to do next year. Both mufflers have a hole (at the top) but is still quiet. Need new summer tires, spark plugs. The list is probably endless but doing everything myself sure saves a ton of cash. Time I can spare, but money, I rather not.

I too plan to buy a TB kit and replace everything including water pump.

 

I've gone about 13 years on two different Acura V6 engines without a problem but the most mikes either had at the time was about 55k miles.

 

My 00 TL-p engine went 220k on the original belt 12 years. It was showing signs of cracking every where.

Friends 03 CLs6 went 199k with the original belt, but that one destroyed the valves unfortunately.

 

OP, If you are going to keep using the 13 year old t belt, I would suggest that you leave the t belt cover off. That way you can keep a close eye on it. You can do a visual inspection at every gas fill up by simply poping the hood to see if it's starting to fray or something.

.02

 

Good idea. I'll only keep the cover on when winter hits. Thanks!

 

Man up and do it.

I understand your pain. I just rebuilt and installed the transmission, found the brakes were all stuck and replaced all the calipers and redid some paintwork. The belt had 7 years and almost 100K and winter is coming on. This IS my winter driver.

FYI, time spent working on your car is not deducted from your total life span.

 

175k miles here, 12 years on that belt... According to the giant pile of recipts from the previous owner.

 

105k and ten years at the change. The original one looked and felt fine in my hands. Another 10 years of life in it, maybe.

 

Replaced mine at 115K and when I took it out it looked just as good as the one I put in.

Acura recommends 105K for the timing belt. I think it will last another year if that is your concern. Just leave it parked in garage.

 

Since the timing belt has so much potential for catastrophic damage to the engine, I'm willing to bet that the 105K mile replacement interval is *extremely* conservative.

Similar in essence to safety engineering of elevators - they're typically designed to carry up to 12x more weight than the 'max weight' you see on the placards inside them.

 

"you've got to ask yourself one question. 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya punk?"

 

It is an "interference" engine then? I was not sure.

 

You might look at the belt every day, but how are you going to know when the idler and tensioner pulleys are on their way out?

 

From what I understand the idler should spin freely without resistance, and the tensioner shouldn't be fully extended. I could be wrong though.

@Kitsune13 yes we have an interference engine - just take a look at the piston heads - they have notches in them to provide clearance for the valves in their closed position!

 

I purchased my 2002 TL type S in 2004 with 48k....it now has 289k with original belt intact!!

 

^^^Sez the high stakes gambler!

 

Yes we should all pitch in and have him buy us some lotto tickets.

 

I look at it this way, if the OEM picks 105k, then they really mean plus 20%, otherwise they would be more than a few failures before 105k. I think I changed mine at 140k and I started to consider that risky. I think your fine with your plan, not sure why you would really wait alot longer, because if it fails, your so screwed. And besides, if you were to try to sell your TL with over 105k your buyer is just gonna offer 600-700 less as it will need to be done. Your belt doesn't have to fray to fail and many times cracks are not seen under tension. Over 200k is pure luck, not smarts.

 

Belts are cheap vs new engine. Imagine if your wife and kids were driving in it and the engine suddenly locked up turning left with a big semi coming. Get it replaced. "If there is a fork in the road, take it."

 

If the T-belt failed I would expect the car to lose power but not have anything 'lock up'.