Has anybody had their timing belt break? If so when did it break, around what mileage? The reason I ask is because I have a 97 Civic with 112,000 miles on it and have never had it changed. I was told I should have it replaced at 90,000, so is it something I should get done immediately? I don't really have the money but will come up with it if my car is going to explode.

Thanks for any input.

 

honda recommends 100000 miles and that is a good interval for you to change your timing belt. your car will not explode but i would get it changed asap if i was you

 

Do NOT underestimate the seroiusness of a timing belt change. Get it done, ASAP. Because if it breaks, theres a damn good chance your motor will be toast.-=

 

Get that belt changed as soon as you can, maybe even within the next 500-1k miles. It's totally worth it on your 97, too. That car's got another 5 years/150k miles on it if you take care of it.
You say that you don't really have the money for it now but how much is it worth to you to NOT have to get your car towed from the shoulder of the highway and possibly deal with having to buy a whole new car?
Think of it more like paying $500 for a brand new car. That works out to $100 (or less) per year of extended lifespan on your car.
You won't regret changing your timing belt but you WILL feel like schmuck when this old one breaks and leaves you high and dry.

 

I just recently picked up a 96 with about 130k on it for 2900 bucks. Its an LX 5-spd car. When I first got the car I started noticing things that told me it had been taken care of. For instance, the filter on it was a honda oil filter. That told me it had been dealer serviced. In any event, I did everything anyway. Plugs, wires, cap, rotor, fuel and air filter, PCV, oil change and transmission oil change. I decided that I'd take it somewhere to see if they could tell if the belt needed to be changed. THe guys called me later in the day and said it was a honda belt, but looked like it may have been done early. That put the belt at btw 40 and 60k miles on it. I got to thinking that at that rate I'll have the car probably long enough to have the belt changed once, and I may as well do it now. If you look at what it takes to do a timing belt, the money is well spent to have somebody do it. 225 dollars for labor they did the belt. It ended up being like 450 with parts. When I looked at the parts list most of them were within a few dollars of what I could have gotten the part at autozone for. They slapped new accesory belts (all three of them) and a water pump on it too, along with new coolant. I got charged no extra labor for the belts or pump change. For the amount of tiem I would have spent busting my knuckles, swearing and wasting my evenings working on this thing while I drive my gas guzzling jeep to work 30 miles each way, having a shop do it seemed to be a good idea. Also, if you do it and dont get the timing just right, you have to tear it all back apart. With a shop repair, this is all their problem. I have no regrets-

K