HX timing belt - Page 3 - Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum

MobilOne · 03-06-2015, 01:54 PM

It seems to sort of be a rule of thumb that a trip to the dealer or mechanic will cost $1000 or thereabouts. Or multiples of that thousand. And they will claim that your car needs repairs that it doesn't. I have caught a local service tech at a local dealership in a lie. Who knows how many times I have been lied to and didn't catch the lie? Stay away from flushes! No cooling system flush! No tranny flush! No engine flush! And thus no water pump replacement, no tranny rebuild, and no engine rebuild. And then no wallet flush and no bank account rebuild.

The important thing is that you got your belt changed.

MobilOne · 03-06-2015, 02:05 PM

Further opinions of mine. "Warranteed" work is of little value. If it wasn't done right the first time, what's the likelihood that it will be done right the second time? I think that warranties are just a gimmick to get you back into the service facility so that you can be preyed upon again. Remember, these folks all have dollar quotas to fulfill.

Xist · 03-06-2015, 04:40 PM

Quote:

And you guarantee everything you sell?

You know i could guarantee you all day long, but we both know a guarantee is only as good as the man who writes it.

Quote:

Hey, if you want me to take a dump in a box and mark it "guaranteed", I will.
I got spare time.

So, I left a three-star review on Yelp. While I was writing this message, he called and apologized for everything. He said that he got busy. So, he spent nineteen minutes apologizing when he could have taken a couple of minutes earlier to communicate properly?

He said that if you do not flush the coolant system, the coolant will start destroying the gaskets and seals. Even with the price, for which they charge more than other shops in the area, the total was similar to other shops.

Xist · 04-26-2015, 01:45 AM

I do not know about my Civic, but I removed the timing belt in Bacon in order to replace the head gasket.

I did not have time to do that on my Forester, but I wish I had done that on my Civic. I am not sure that I needed many special tools besides a chain wrench.

Arragonis · 04-26-2015, 02:48 PM

Firstly here in the UK we tend not to trust timing belts beyond about 40K miles - Vauxhall (aka GM - UK) did and had loads of problems. As they sold to companies mostly they were spanked by those clients deciding to claim back the cost and/or not buy them again.

We like chains now here

Secondly I think the idea of replacing other items affected by the belt is that doing this means you (should) not have to replace the belt again. e.g. if you replace your belt and then the water pump goes you have to replace water pump AND the belt again. So replacing a secondary pulley, and a water pump and maybe something else makes sense whilst everything is apart.

It does mean a lot of spend but if you plan to keep it then the investment is returned in having newer crucial components IMHO but I understand about the additional spend.

California98Civic · 04-26-2015, 05:01 PM

When I did my civic timing belt last summer it was a PITA! ...because the crank pulley ended up needing 1300+ foot pounds torque to come off. Impacts were useless. In the end I had a 12' steel pipe on the end of my breaker bar IIRC and was lightly bounding on it until it popper loose. I also stripped a bolt that HAD to come off but was corroded on and in an awkward place. So i needed a bolt removal tool. Total final costs were a lot less than you paid, parts and a couple tools for a few hundred bucks total, IIRC. But did I mention it was a PITA? I'm glad I did it myself, but the car was off the road for like a week because i am new to this job and because of the stripped bolt and the crank pulley difficulties. Sounds like you had yours back in a day. I saved cash, you saved time. How much is your time worth to you?

Enjoy the ride!