I'm not sure if the timing belt was ever changed in my car by previous owner/s. Is there a way to tell if it's badlike a noise? When my A/C is on, it makes a squeakwhen I drive it hard and switch the gear quick...... What would be a ballpark price for a mechanic to do it?

 

woo! if you do it yourself... youll wish you had a mechanic do it. IT can be done yourself... never have doing one before. From experience, i did mine not too long ago. AND water pump at the same time. Id love to do a write up about it, but i dont have any pics... so one thing, MAKE sure you tighten your underdrive pulley tightest ever!

if your in the ohio.. dayton area let me know, i could maybe give ya some help. im also looking for some.

 

Yea, I think thats a little advanced for me at this stage, it would be easier if I just brought it to a mechanic I know. I'm in New England so thats waaaay out there for me lol, thanks for the offer though.

I kind of wanted to get some unorthodox underdrive pulleys when I get my timing belt changed.....might be too much at this time though. But i'm starting to get scared now that my car has 116,000 miles on it that my belt will go and crap.....

 

Change it! They fail without warning, then you have major engine damage.

It's a medium difficulty DIY project. The main issue is you'll need an impact wrench to remove and replace the crank pulley bolt, and it'll really help with the big bolts on the motor mount too. Other than that, no unusual tools required. Be careful not to lose the little key for the crank pulley.

 

ok that squeek is your ac belt not timing belt change that ac belt and the helms manual says to only tighten the crank pully to 14 ft lbs the torque of the engine does the rest

 

Oh, is that belt easier to change than the timing belt?

 

yes it is. and don't diy this if you have no experience with them. if you don't install it properly and don't set the timing properly, then say bye bye to your engine. it's best to have a mechanic do it, then you at least have some assurance that it's gonna be installed correctly, plus some shops have a warranty on their work.

 

When you have a shop do the timing belt, there should be no additional labor to put a new A/C belt on. It has to be taken off anyway as part of the job.

 

yeah, AND if you change the AC belt yourself, make sure you put it on right. When i changed my timing belt and water pump... i didnt put my ac belt on all the way right so half of it got shredded, but i didnt want to take it off... so everytime i turned my car on it would squeak for a split second.I had a guy at my work loosen the bolt for me cuz i didnt have an impact gun. All the other bolts you should be able to do.

 

I decided to go to a honda dealership to get it done. My mechanic said the estimate would be $450, and the honda place was $530 but they also change the water-pump and adjust the valves so I thought it was a better deal. Alot of loot more than I thought it would be but I guess thats the price these days.....

Do you think I'll notice any performance gains. I'm guessing a little but should be noticeable right?