Timing belt age VS mileage

[blocke]

I changed my timing belt/water pump/tensioner 4 years ago when I bought my e30. Since then, the car has been driven maybe 7k miles max. I used it as a daily for about 1 year, but I only lived 11 miles from work. For the most part, it has spent the majority of its time in storage, or under the knife.

At what point should the belt be changed because of it's age, rather than miles? The belt looks fine, no cracks or damage to speak of.

[Smash9002]

Four years or 40k miles, whichever comes first! :)

[barry]

Ok if this helps mine is 6 years 25K

[IRON-E]

I just redid mine, I also drive the hell out of my e30. I enjoy it at least 6 times a week. It gets grocery/errand duties, long trips, mountain runs and anything I can test my little m20 on.

3 years of hard driving, well over 40k miles.

[Ayman]

now now, let's not make this a competition to see who's lasts longer otherwise some of us will be sorry. Just change it.

Though I must admit Ed, that's impressive.

[IRON-E]

Yeah, I was kinda surprised but wishfully thinking, to blow up my m20 to have an easy excuse to swap. Instead I opted for maintenance now.

[Jrey]

for me its 60k for the eta ;) although i open it up on the FWY once in awhile, does everyday highway driving effect the timing belt in anyway?

[jeffnhiscars]

If its any consolation, I pulled the head yesterday on the 98k Cabrio that I bought with a "broken" TB. It had a sticker so was replaced at least once which puts it well within the 60k mileage interval.

Turns out the belt was NOT broken....the crank had merely stripped all of the teeth out of a section after the belt had delaminated.....from age !!

[Cephas]

I think 40k is a bit obsessive. 50 to 60k makes the most sense in my mind, but everyone has heard the horror stories of belts going before they should have.

I had an ETA that must've gone well over 100k with no problems before I changed it. And at one point, I even swapped the water pump without changing the belt.

[nrubenstein]

Yeah, I would actually tend to worry more about about age than mileage.