I just had mine replaced on the MDX, belt looked great and I went 2 years past Honda's time interval for replacement. Mileage is at 88K. First owner was in Phoenix and where I live it's the opposite extreme so combined with the primarily city driving this has had it goes to prove the belts are robust and it appears Honda's current interval is still quite conservative. But, peace of mind with an interference engine is worth a lot.
Yep, just got a cheap Honda yesterday with 140k miles. Owner had no idea if the belt was changed. Wouldn't budge from his lowest price knowing someone else wouldn't know or care. I took a gamble since the serpentine belts looked changed and didn't leak a drop of oil. Hoping it had a decent maintenance history.
I don't understand it, it's a planned expense that happens likely only once for most owners and it's more spendy than most routine services but still not bad. If people are too broke to budget for this job in advance, assuming they are aware of it, they shouldn't own a car.
So you reckon not having a car to go to work and such is going to help their financial situation?
From the discussions I've had with people that change them (DIY) or mechanics, it seems like the belt itself usually shows little to no wear. In fact, most say it's almost never the belt that breaks, but the tensioner is what fails, then takes the belt with it.
Exactly - like I said, sellers laugh at this.
The TB was probably in great shape (as usual) - but how was the hydraulic tensioner? Did it show any dampness around the plunger rod?
The owners manual for the '99 Accord I had had a part about timing belt maintenance and when it should be changed.
My point is that people need to budget more than monthly payments and insurance into cost of ownership of any vehicle, including jobs like this. All I'm saying is that they should do their homework before buying so that there is no such thing as "surprise" routine maintenance over $1k that they aren't prepared for.
I'll wait to do my plugs until I hit 100K, but I hear the Acura version can be more of a pain because they use covered wire connectors which make them harder to undo and more likely to break. Or so they say...
I agree a tech knows the importance however they also realize that the belt will go a lot longer without an issue. Saying that to imply that they can also charge the customer for the job but not actually do it. I experienced this with my last Accord. Long story short…I asked the service manager to look behind me and agreed it wasn’t charged. Refunded my money. A very well respected dealership in my area. There’s an assclown in every organization I guess.
Not sure, I had an indy shop do it and I asked them to save the belt which they did but I never saw the tensioner.
