ezekielj007

My family trip from Atlanta to orlando is coming up in 2 weeks and i'm planning on driving my 99 TL. I currently have about 106,500 milles on my car. I have never had my timing belt changed but I wondered if I would be alright without having it replaced before I go? It's about 400 miles one way and I'm trying to justify not spending some of the vacation money on the belt but doing it when we come back. What do you think.

Logic717

I have a 2000 TL with roughly the same mileage and I was considering this same thing. Called the dealer and was quoted $1100 for this work... and $1400 for the 107k mile service which includes replacing the timing belt... pick your poison...

My opinion would be to hold off until after the trip.

ezekielj007

I see your from the ATL also. Where did you get that quote?

I'm thinking I'll be ok waiting too. I just want to make sure there isn't a disporportionate amount of people whose had breaking issues around this mileage.

fsttyms1

your fine. I had 200k on mine. wait till after the trip. The job at the dealer will run you between 800 and 1k. they will most ,likely want yo replace teh H2O pump at the same time.

acutee

I have seen other members are paying as low as $800 for timing belt, but that depends on what are being done on the car. As far as timing belt goes, IMO you can still drive a few thousand miles more on it and it is still safe.

optomos

Youll be fine. Just watch those speed traps going there.

ezekielj007

Definitely, it's about 40 of us going down as a caravan (we rented 5 houses for 8 days). We take this trip every year and have managed to escape the traps. Hopefully this year we'll be just as lucky. Thanks guys for the reassurance. I didn't want to have to worry about the belt the whole trip.

Pure Adrenaline

iTrader: (2)

My philosophy is that if the car runs fine, don't touch anything before a big trip. You are more likely to suffer problems from poor quality work, a mistake, a defective replacement part, whatever, than to have the perfectly working part fail on you all of a sudden.

RickRoush03

its not that hard to just look at it and see the condition of it. if it looks new your good to go, if its hard, cracked etc. well then, time will tell

poohlikeshunny

where do I look to inspect the timing belt?

ou sig

the timing belt is actually pretty hard to see. You can jack your car up and get under the passenger side and see the bottom of it. I am going to do mine pretty soon also - I have a '99TL with nearly 106k miles now. Dont go to a dealer to get it done, look for a Honda/Acura shop. I found one around here that will charge $665 and that includes replacing all the belts and the water pump.

okactuary

My perspective on this is a bit pessimistic but based on my own experience.

About 3 years ago I had driven 800 miles to Santa Fe for a vacation with my boys and the timing belt skipped 3 teeth. Not one but TWO dealers (ok it was a Chrysler) could not figure it out and I had to rent a van and it was a total nightmare that cost $2500.

I also had a water pump seize up after 77,000 miles on a Honda and it broke the belt...and cost $1800 to fix.

The probability you will be fine is pretty high, but I will never take that chance again. Ever.

ou sig

exactly, I plan on keeping this for a few more years at least - so Im going to get it done pretty soon. nearly $700 is a lot, but its better than the worse case scenario (belt breaks)