Timing Belt, 1999 Forester

[John Varela]

My wife's 1999 Forester was bought in the fall of 1998. It has 40,088 miles
on it. (And that includes one trip from Virginia to Utah and back, 6,000
miles right there.) She makes lots of short trips.

The manual says to change the timing belt at 105,000 miles or 105 months.
Since the car will be 108 months old this fall I called the local garage and
tried to schedule an appointment to get the belt changed. When the guy asked
me the year, mileage, and so forth, he asked why I want to change the belt at
only 40,000 miles. I told him about the 105 month thing. He told me not to
bother to change the belt until about 60,000 miles.

At the present rate of use, the car won't have 60,000 miles until about 2012.
I'll probably be dead before then.

Recognizing that the man is turning away several hundred dollars' worth of
business, thus enhancing his credibility, I am inclined to take his
recommendation.

Comments?

 

[Todd H.]

My wife's 1999 Forester was bought in the fall of 1998. It has 40,088 miles
on it. (And that includes one trip from Virginia to Utah and back, 6,000
miles right there.) She makes lots of short trips.

The manual says to change the timing belt at 105,000 miles or 105 months.
Since the car will be 108 months old this fall I called the local garage and
tried to schedule an appointment to get the belt changed. When the guy asked
me the year, mileage, and so forth, he asked why I want to change the belt at
only 40,000 miles. I told him about the 105 month thing. He told me not to
bother to change the belt until about 60,000 miles.

At the present rate of use, the car won't have 60,000 miles until about 2012.
I'll probably be dead before then.

Recognizing that the man is turning away several hundred dollars' worth of
business, thus enhancing his credibility, I am inclined to take his
recommendation.

Comments?

I'm with you John, given the age and dry rot concerns, I'd want that
belt at least inspected for cracking and stretching, and replaced
along with the water pump if it even looked remotely odd.

I have 4 bent exhaust valves from an 86 Honda Civic from a used engine
that went into it that suposedly had only 25k miles on it (the valve,
other than being bent did look clean enough to support that), and it
broke at the equivalent of only 40k, but was old in years.

Have the belt inspected, do the water pump while yer in there. Maybe
if you call back on THursday it'll have slowed down and the guy will
be more willing to take your money.

Best Regards,

 

[John Varela]

I'm with you John, given the age and dry rot concerns, I'd want that
belt at least inspected for cracking and stretching, and replaced
along with the water pump if it even looked remotely odd.

I have 4 bent exhaust valves from an 86 Honda Civic from a used engine
that went into it that suposedly had only 25k miles on it (the valve,
other than being bent did look clean enough to support that), and it
broke at the equivalent of only 40k, but was old in years.

Have the belt inspected, do the water pump while yer in there. Maybe
if you call back on THursday it'll have slowed down and the guy will
be more willing to take your money.

I called the dealer and they want $1200 to replace timing belt, water pump,
seals, etc. So I told the guy that although the car is a '99 it has only
40,000 miles on it (and we know that's the real mileage because we bought it
new), and he allowed as how he has never seen a belt fail because of age.
Not that it couldn't happen, but he's never seen it. So I'm not going to
have it done.