How to tell when the timing belt on a Daewoo Lanos needs replacing.

Miss_J

Anyone know.

Just taken my car into the garage today to get looked at as it is guzling petrol and costing me a fortune. They've had to service the car, the brake pads needed changing, the spark leads need changing and the coils to the cylinders need replacing, so far the bill is £378.00:eek::eek:

I've read somewhere that the timing belt needs changing on this car at approx 50K miles and wonder if this could also be contributing to the problem. Just asked the garage and he looked it up and said that the recommendation is it's changed at 40K miles, now as we only bought it a few months ago and it has 52K on the clock we have no idea if it has been replaced. The garage said if they took it off to check it is not replacable so would need to have a new one fitted, but given how much the repairs are already running into I can't afford to do this unneccesarrily. Any ideas?

hartcjhart

can you contact the previous owner and ask them,

if not I would get it done asap and make sure they replace the tensioners etc and fit a new water pump while they are at it

KonkyWonky

Timing belts are cheap as chips, the majority of the cost in getting it is changed is in the labour.

Off all things to skimp on a car the timing belt is not one, if it fails you are likely to face a partial engine rebuild which would cost hundreds if not thousands of pounds.

It would be hard to tell from looking at a belt when or if it had been changed, if in doubt change it.

Miss_J

Sorry posted in the wrong place.

My only worry about this is that the garage has said that the timing belt may either cost £35 or could cost a lot more if they take it off and uncover more problems. With the costs already running at £378 I'm going to have to put the repairs onto my credit card and pay off the costs over the next couple of months and really can't afford to have the bill go up by very much more.

KonkyWonky

£35 to change a timing belt is exceptionally low.

Most mechanics would write in the service book that the timing belt had been changed and at which mileage. If its not marked in the book and you can't contact the previous owner to confirm whether it has or not then there is no getting out it really. Its just one of the woes of being a car owner.

tomstickland

If you don't know when it was last changed then change it.

Miss_J

I so can't wait until I can afford to get a lease car through work. Monthly costs including all servicing, insurance, etc. At least then I would know how much my car was going to cost me each month.

Kurtis_Blue

Timing belt and tensioner on most lanos is at 60k miles it will state intervals very clearly in the service history book, them stating that they may find other issues when changing a timing belt is a very strange thing to say, what engine is yours?

Miss_J

I have a 1.4 litre engine. Just thinking though if the timing belt needs replacing at 60K I should still have a few thousand more miles out of it as my car has 52K on the clock.

I thought it was 50K that the belt needed changing and the garage thought it was 40K but have read elsewhere that it's 60K.

Kurtis_Blue

40k or 4 years, whichever is sooner.

Find proof in your service book, it will be ticked at one of the services.

Or get it done with the tensioner. now.

Miss_J

Bought the car second hand with no service history so don't know if it was done at 40K. Got confused there, I thought you mentioned 60K. You can tell I'm a girl can't you.:)