Maintenance questions

[nanofreak]

I was wondering if I should replace my timing belt. I have a Vibe, new to me, with 93000 miles on it. It seems it was well maintained, but I have no records, etc. I am about to change plugs and wires, drain and fill tranny, did an oil change, air filter, in cabin air filter, and not sure what else.Is the Timing Belt something I should really consider doing?(anything else I should do otherwise?)

[nanofreak]

OK, so it has a chain, do you need to do anything to a chain at all?

[Sublimewind]

Quote, originally posted by nanofreak »OK, so it has a chain, do you need to do anything to a chain at all?Welcome to Genvibe..!!It's a chain.... hmm I thought it was a belt, but then again, i've yet to open that area of the car.... You can go to matrixowners.com and download the repair manual for a trix(same thing) and find out... heck if you search around, you might find the link to the DL here... i'm not sure where anymore, you might shoot a IM to Keithvibe and ask him... he pointed me in the right direction once..

[joatmon]

typically chains do not require maintenance, defintely not like timing belts do. I suppose if you had the engine opened up to where you could easily access it, and you had either a huge number of miles or lots of hard use/abuse, you might consider replacing the chain and gears, but I'd say don't worry about them as a routine maintenance item. One nice thing is that these are supposed to be non-interference engines, so if tragedy happens and the chain breaks, the pistons won't hit the valves.Probably about time to check the brakes, maybe the PCV valve, check the throttle body for gunk build up, maybe drop a bottle of injector cleaner in the tank. In general, the engines seem to hold up really well if not terribly abused

[Sublimewind]

Quote, originally posted by nanofreak »I was wondering if I should replace my timing belt. I have a Vibe, new to me, with 93000 miles on it. It seems it was well maintained, but I have no records, etc. I am about to change plugs and wires, drain and fill tranny, did an oil change, air filter, in cabin air filter, and not sure what else.Is the Timing Belt something I should really consider doing?(anything else I should do otherwise?)It might be a good idea to go through the brakes and freshin them up, lube the slide pins (had a problem with a dry slide once) check the condition of the rotors, on BOTH sides, mine had and still have some odd wear on the inside of both rotors, right on the outside edge..

[nanofreak]

Thanks all. I do not know as much about cars as I should from a maintenance point of view, but I am coming out of an 01 Taurus, which was a mechanical nightmare, and while I know the vibe has the potential to last a very long time, I plan on giving it all the help I can.Some of my questions may be very basic, even stupid, but we all have to learn sometime.Your replies to my posts are greatly appreciated.

[prathman]

Quote, originally posted by joatmon »... One nice thing is that these are supposed to be non-interference engines, so if tragedy happens and the chain breaks, the pistons won't hit the valves.Note this past thread:http://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id=30993where considerable engine damage occurred due to loss of the woodruff key and therefore loss of timing chain synchronization of the camshaft rotation. Eventual conclusion, with confirming letter from Toyota, was that our engines are interference type. A broken timing chain would therefore be expected to result in additional engine damage.But, as you stated, timing chains aren't generally routine maintenance items and usually have a very long life.

[djb383]

If your going to remove the valve cover, check/record valve clearances and compare them to the factory valve clearance specs.

[joatmon]

well, at least I said "supposed to be"I would prefer non-interference, thanks for keeping the info here accurate

[Sublimewind]

Quote, originally posted by joatmon »well, at least I said "supposed to be"I would prefer non-interference, thanks for keeping the info here accurate Honestly, I don't think there ARE many 4cyl, non-interfierence engines... If you think about it, you vould have to move the valves far enough away from the piston a TDC to keep them from hitting, OR, pocket the pistons enough to make them clear at full extension, either way, you are talking a LOW compession motor.. or one with a huge stroke to make up for the compression duew to clearance.. ok, techno-babble off...