When to replace Timing Belt

[JackMosby]

Yes, I read the same thing in my owners manual.

[sridge]

So , after reading the above threads and more elsewhere , I am still confused .

I do not have access to the car or the manual at the moment .nor can I find any details on the Chevrolet website.

1.Does the 2011, 1.6 L Aveo hatchback with manual transmission have a timing belt or a chain ?
2.Is it an interference or Non-interference engine .
3.What is the OEM replacement recommendation for the belt ( or chain)?
4.Has anyone experienced premature failure of the belt /chain and at what kms?
5.How easy is it to do it yourself , if you have never done one before , and are not a mechanic?

Any Help will be much appreciated.

[slayerized6]

So , after reading the above threads and more elsewhere , I am still confused .

I do not have access to the car or the manual at the moment .nor can I find any details on the Chevrolet website.

1.Does the 2011, 1.6 L Aveo hatchback with manual transmission have a timing belt or a chain ?
2.Is it an interference or Non-interference engine .
3.What is the OEM replacement recommendation for the belt ( or chain)?
4.Has anyone experienced premature failure of the belt /chain and at what kms?
5.How easy is it to do it yourself , if you have never done one before , and are not a mechanic?

Any Help will be much appreciated.

1. timing belt
2. Interference engine
3. AC Delco is OEM. Gates and Dayco are also good aftermarket alternatives.
4. I never had a belt snapped on me. Premature wear can occur for many reasons though.
5. Ive "replaced" a timing belt as part of replacing a head cylinder gasket. By itself, you have to have a bit of experience and knowledge working around cars. I am not a mechanic myself, but I've been doing almost all basic maintenance service on my cars for the past 10 years. My brother is a mechanic though, and If i need a special tool I dont have or dont want to buy myself, I have him bring it home on a weekend so I can use it.

At a minimum, you will need to jack the car up and place on jack-stands, have to jack up the engine and support it because youll have to temporarily remove the engine mount. Youll also need a basic socket set, an allen head socket set, a water pump socket tool, cam-lock tool, torque wrench, and probably a few other things im missing.

If your doubting yourself, just bring it to a shop. Especially on a job as crucial as a timing belt. If you mess it up completely, you destroyed your valves at a minimum, and break a piston and trash the whole engine at worst. If realize half-way though that you cant do it yourself, you're paying to tow it to a shop so that they can fix it.

Alldata shows replacing the timing belt as a 1.6 hour job on my 2004 Aveo. You can get a timing belt kit for around $120. Around me, the going labor rate at a shop is about $120/hr. Total price should be around $300-350 if you were to take it to a shop.

[FlaAveo5]

My timing belt/water pump kit replacement, and the work to replace it all was $771 here in Ft.laud. It is a VERY expensive repair here for some reason. Mechs. get paid more I think. The dealer wants $1,350!!

what I paid was the lowest price I could find in 5 YEARS of looking! My OEM belt and pump etc..all lasted 11yrs. But I was 'afraid' of it snapping at any moment for nearly 5 years. My 'Continental kit' was the most expensive kit I could have put in. But it has the most parts. All the seals, tensioners, water pump, some small tube of grease for the seals, and I have heard it has a thicker well made timing belt.
Even the owner of the garage that did the work, said that most people go for the 'cheap kits', with the fewest parts and shortest warranties. Just a timing belt, maybe the water pump,....thats it. Then in 6 months , they have to open the engine again to put in the 3 seals at $1-2 each, and the tensioners. Not exactly saving a lot of money by not putting them in. Like the saying goes...'penny wise, pound foolish'.

IF I had the tools and the nerve, I have been told I could do it myself. That most people do it themselves. BUT no warranty on the work, and frankly, i dont have the tools or the nerve/knowledge, to open up my engine and try to get a timing belt aligned perfectly. Off by 1 tooth, the engine blows up or gets screwed up...so...its done, and wont have to do it again, in my lifetime.

[slayerized6]

My timing belt/water pump kit replacement, and the work to replace it all was $771 here in Ft.laud. It is a VERY expensive repair here for some reason. Mechs. get paid more I think. The dealer wants $1,350!!

what I paid was the lowest price I could find in 5 YEARS of looking! My OEM belt and pump etc..all lasted 11yrs. But I was 'afraid' of it snapping at any moment for nearly 5 years. My 'Continental kit' was the most expensive kit I could have put in. But it has the most parts. All the seals, tensioners, water pump, some small tube of grease for the seals, and I have heard it has a thicker well made timing belt.
Even the owner of the garage that did the work, said that most people go for the 'cheap kits', with the fewest parts and shortest warranties. Just a timing belt, maybe the water pump,....thats it. Then in 6 months , they have to open the engine again to put in the 3 seals at $1-2 each, and the tensioners. Not exactly saving a lot of money by not putting them in. Like the saying goes...'penny wise, pound foolish'.

IF I had the tools and the nerve, I have been told I could do it myself. That most people do it themselves. BUT no warranty on the work, and frankly, i dont have the tools or the nerve/knowledge, to open up my engine and try to get a timing belt aligned perfectly. Off by 1 tooth, the engine blows up or gets screwed up...so...its done, and wont have to do it again, in my lifetime.

You got ripped off at close to $800. And did that include the parts kit or did you buy that on your own? A Continental Timing Belt kit is $86 on RockAuto. Even if that was upmarked to $200, you still got ripped off.

I would always ask a shop to break down the price between parts and labor when making an appointment. By the book, a timing belt on a 2004 Aveo is 1.6 hours.

[FlaAveo5]

They bought the parts, I insisted on Continental, it says $223 for the kit. I saw it has the most parts on Rock Auto. RockAuto costs $131.70,....and they still had to get the seals, $3 more.....big deal, but they didnt come in that kit. Says so online, take a look.
You must be looking at a kit with nothing in it but a belt and a pump. The rest is labor. As i said, in Ft.laud it is VERY expensive to have a pro. fix THIS timing belt thing. I begged people on here, that live here, to fix it for me, and I'd pay them a fair price for the work,....no one offered to help. EXCEPT 'Petrified rabbit'! Didnt see YOU offering to help out.

And he doesn't live down here anymore, so he couldn't help, but he tried to find friends that he has here to help out...no one would do it. THATS the help I get...from anyone...even paying them! At least he offered. So...I HAD to get it done. I looked for 5 years for someone to do it, and no luck at all.

All the garages wanted over $900, and a 1 year warranty. Craigslist 'mechs'. wanted $500+..., with no warranty, and they were not ASE certified. So they could screw it up as bad as I could! IF I even tried to do it myself I would **** it up, and have a dead car, IF I could psychically do it, I would have. But I would probably have screwed it up.

Besides I dont have the tools to even attempt to do it. So i have to pay to have it done. Hey, I got 11 years from the OEM belt/pump, so this is the first, and last, replacement of this belt and parts. So I didnt replace it at the 5 year mark. So you could divide the price in half. I should have done it at the 5 year mark, 'technically'. But I had maybe 15K miles on it!

If not for my fear of the belt just snapping at any moment,...after 11 years of the HOT Fla heat, and plain AGE of the rubber, I would still be using the OEM stuff. But as EVERYONE says, the belt can snap in an instant, it looks new to me, but that means nothing.
I cant buy a new car, or buy an 'old used car' with what...200K miles on it? Rusty and smelling of cigs.? There are FEW Toyotas with 50K miles and no rust and pristine paint for $1K dollars. I have a car that looks new, drives new, smells new, with 39K miles on it, no dents, no damage, no rust. Cant buy a car like this. So $771 is a DEAL. I asked for help on here for 5 years...no luck. It WAS $675 last year, but mechs. got a raise, I didnt, but they did. And Fla. is expensive to do this job. Everyone around the ENTIRE country tells me it costs $2-300 to do,...well not in south Fla. You have 2 'beaters'....I have 1 'pristine'. That makes a difference.

The dealer, Lou Bachrodt Chevy in Pompano Beach, call them and ask them their price...it is $1,300! And when I asked then to 'break it down' for me, I got ...'next in line....' they wouldn't/couldn't explain THAT price to me. I laughed at the guy and left in a BIG huff!! THAT price pissed me off. But that's the dealer. And THEY wouldn't 'break it down'. A repair that books at 1.6-2 Hrs in Chevys own books, even at dealer mech. rates, that's ridiculous. And the parts are, well, $86 according to you, so that comes to $1,300? I'm happy with what I got, and the LONG warranty, and knowing I can now drive it, less like a 'little old lady'....before I AM one

[markincali]

My 2007 has 140k and unless the previous owners changed it its still going strong. We bought it with 65k so it may have been changed.

[FlaAveo5]

Your 2007 has a the 5 yr/100K mile warranty on its belt, Thats the year they put in a better belt, or did some redesigning to the engine. Mine 'lasted for 11 years. But only 39K miles. it still might be running fine, but I finally have some peace of mind as I drive...the little that I do drive.
I replaced it all because of the age of the belt. OLD rubber will snap sooner or later. I was running on pure luck. I have lived in total fear, for over 5 years, that it could snap at any second, because of the AGE of the rubber, not the miles.

My parents had a 1998 Ford Escort sedan, and their timing belt snapped while DRIVING on I-95, it just snapped out of the blue, at like 110K miles. BUT believe it or not, it had a NON interference engine, so no damage to the engine, or they stopped so fast, no engine damage, I forget. BUT even WAY back then, it was an $1,100 job to fix. It was towed to a Ford dealership, and took 2 days to get it back.
BUT I made them buy a full coverage extended warranty, online, dropped the one bought from Ford, that cost 3 times as much, over $3K, the one I found them, way back in those days, was like $1,200, they are STILL that price now for a warranty, on the Aveo. So i cant afford one, AND I would have had to wait till it snapped and caused damage to the engine,..to be a 'repair', not 'maintenance'. Well they only paid the $50 deductible and got it all repaired. So the warranty paid for itself. It never broke again, nothing big like that. They kept it till they got some Buick sedan. So you have the model year GM did the redesign and the warranty is much longer....lucky guy!

[Taiger]

Err on the side of caution (and possible severe engine damage) go with the lower mileage #. Many of us have experienced a snapped timing belt. Better safe than sorry.