2001 Protege timing belt change

[Number_35]

I'm going a bit wild here after finally learning how to upload photos. These are from 2012. The car was an '01 Mazda Protege SE - very basic - 1.6 l engine, 5-speed manual, no air, crank windows. The TB was original @ 190K km, and still looked great. Changed it anyway for peace of mind before a long road trip. From the school of hard knocks, I've learned that these jobs go better when I mark the old belt in place, and then transfer the marks to the new belt before it's installed. I changed the idler pulley and the tensioner spring as well. We bought the car in 2005 @ 66K km, and ran it on Mobil 1 5W-30 thereafter, changed Spring & Fall @ intervals that varied from about 7500 km to 10K km. The car went to the boneyard in 2016, on the road for 15-1/2 years, only 245K km on the clock and no major repairs, but unsafe due to rust.

 

[53' Stude]

Very nice quality pics and thank you for sharing sir

 

[JC1]

Thanks for sharing. How many hours did it take to do the timing belt?

 

[miden851]

Very Nice!

 

[Number_35]

Originally Posted By: JC1

Thanks for sharing. How many hours did it take to do the timing belt?

If I recall correctly it was one long day followed by a half day. I think I could do it again a lot quicker. It's always an adventure when you haven't done that engine type before. (Even though I'd done at least half a dozen on other engine types before, this was my first shot at a DOHC. Lots to learn the first time.) The first day I took everything apart, and agonized over getting the new belt on correctly. Once that was done I left it, and buttoned everything up the next day. Forgot to mention that I'd changed the water pump as well, but that didn't add too much time to the job.

 

[Number_35]

Originally Posted By: car51

Very nice quality pics and thank you for sharing sir

Thanks! Old Canon PowersShot camera, but still takes reasonable shots. Wish I'd taken more.

 

[Number_35]

These are from the previous Fall (2011) when I pulled the valve cover to inspect the timing belt. It looked OK to me, but I changed it before a long trip the following year because of the years and mileage on it. I was pleased with the cleanliness of things under the valve cover. At that point we'd owned the car for about six years, and had put 110K additional km on it. The oil was almost always Mobil 1 5w-30, changed Spring and Fall, so approximately every 9K - 10K km:

 

[Silk]

If you like to mark belts, you would love to do a Nissan belt - they don't have timing marks, just belt marks.