Cruze 1.8L uses timing belt

[Spazdog]

But back on topic...had a Cruze LS in my shop yesterday.

looks just like a Saturn Astra with a plastic cover over the battery and pink coolant in the reservoir.

Which means it looks just like an Aveo with a slightly different coolant reservoir and airbox with that cover over the battery.

It's the Aveo thing that bothers me. I know it's got an extra 200cc's but......Aveo

. Quite possibly the most vague and unpleasant car I've driven since the 1st generation Kia Sephia or possibly my Chevette.

I didn't get to drive it.

I can only hope that it drives more like what I've heard about the Astra than an Aveo was in person. (at least the Cruze doesn't have all the indecipherable european pictograms and pixel starved MS-DOS displays in the Astra)

What the [heck] is that? Is that button for cassette? 'Cause I couldn't find the cassette opening in the dash...and on the other spoke, what does right triangle and up and down arrows do? oh! Audio. Apparently in Belgium right triangle means audio.

 

[Nick R]

Trust me, it's not an aveo. In any way, shape or form.

 

[aproch]

Here's the deal. It's an interference engine, so yea everybody is going to go OH NO TIMING BELT!!!!! GM recommends changing it at 10years/97,5000 miles. Plus after looking under neath the hood the water pump is NOT run by the T-Belt from what I saw (lower radiator hose leads to a pump that is driven by the accessory/serpentine belt). Interesting enough though about that pulley is that it has about 5-6 extra grooves in it.... The rest of the pulleys don't. Anyone know what that's about?

And back to the timing belt.... After you take off the motor mount on that side there's almost enough space to stand in the engine bay and change it, so it can't really be all that bad.

 

[steve20]

"unpleasant" great way to describe the Aveo--anytime I see one driving on the road, I take a look at the driver--just want to see what type of person would put up with this annoying beast.
Only reason I've driven them is I've been last to the rental lot and it was either an Aveo or walk

 

[rjundi]

Originally Posted By: steve20
"unpleasant" great way to describe the Aveo--anytime I see one driving on the road, I take a look at the driver--just want to see what type of person would put up with this annoying beast.
Only reason I've driven them is I've been last to the rental lot and it was either an Aveo or walk


Aveo in my rental experience has been I feel like I am driving an 8 yr old car but its 10k miles on it. Its a good case for purchasing a used car.

 

[Artem]

Originally Posted By: Quest
I maybe the only one on this board that passionately supports (likes) T-belts, guess I've done enough T-belt jobs to become fond of it.

Pros: quiet, doesn't stretch much (the good ones I mean), easy to service (better than tearing apart the engine to get to the chain + guide rails, hydraulic-actuated chain tensioner, etc.)

Cons: cost for seriously good quality parts, some awkward engine locations, etc.

I personally not a big fan of chains, no matter how much general NA motoring joes fond of.

Q.


I personally like both. They both have their benefits.

Take my 2007 Honda Civic EX Auto for example... 120,000 miles on her now and all i've done was engine oil changes, air filters, 1 tranny flush and a spark plug change @ 90k.

Honda has the 105k no maintenance thing but @ 105k, if you bring it to the dealer, they will write up a to-do list totaling thousands of $$$$.

Right now the only thing that my Civic needs is to have the brake system flushed, coolant, power steering and another tranny flush (did the first @ 60k miles) I choose to run the factory accessory belt even longer because i've taken it off @ 110k and it shows no signs of degrading to where it might break on me.

Now had the Civic had a timing chain, it would most likely needed to be replaced @ 90k miles along with a pile of seals, gaskets, etc etc.

With a chain, i feel like it doesn't need to be touched for another 100k miles at a minimum.

One good thing about T-belts is that usually, by 100k miles, a lot of engine seals and gaskets would start seeping a little oil and need to be replaced. Those are usually the seals which are replaced during a T-belt change.

As far as engine noise goes... my Civic is super quiet @ idle and i honestly don't see how it could get even quieter with a T-belt. I can already hear the injectors pulsing...

 

[Drew99GT]

Originally Posted By: Jiles
My personal opinion, concerning "timing belts" is that they are just a cheap way to activate valves!
I do not want a rubber belt used for this purpose, regardless of the change interval.
While searching for a newer automobile, I elemitated ALL vehicles with rubber timing belts and discovered something very interesting.
As most of you know Lexus is just a fancy Toyota. However Lexus uses the same V6 engine that is in a Toyota with one exception--They equip the Lexus with a timing chain, not the rubber belt!
That should be evidence of which is better.


Total bull [censored]. Name one engine that Toyota uses that has a belt, and the same engine used in a Lexus, has a chain? Here's a hint: there aren't any! The most widely used engine being the 3MZ-FE, which has a timing belt in both the Camry and the lexus ES300. Why would Toyota incur the cost to engineer an engine with everything the same, except one model that uses a belt and a different one that uses a chain? They don't!

 

[KrisZ]

I prefer chains. I just don't like the idea of changing timing belts when I know an alternate method exists that eliminates that need.
The less I have to mess in the engine compartment, the better.

 

[Hokiefyd]

Originally Posted By: Drew99GT
Originally Posted By: Jiles
My personal opinion, concerning "timing belts" is that they are just a cheap way to activate valves!
I do not want a rubber belt used for this purpose, regardless of the change interval.
While searching for a newer automobile, I elemitated ALL vehicles with rubber timing belts and discovered something very interesting.
As most of you know Lexus is just a fancy Toyota. However Lexus uses the same V6 engine that is in a Toyota with one exception--They equip the Lexus with a timing chain, not the rubber belt!
That should be evidence of which is better.


Total bull [censored]. Name one engine that Toyota uses that has a belt, and the same engine used in a Lexus, has a chain? Here's a hint: there aren't any! The most widely used engine being the 3MZ-FE, which has a timing belt in both the Camry and the lexus ES300. Why would Toyota incur the cost to engineer an engine with everything the same, except one model that uses a belt and a different one that uses a chain? They don't!


I must agree. I know of no instance where the Toyota model uses an engine with a timing belt but the exact same engine, plus a chain, is used in a Lexus. The MZ-series engine used a belt on both the Toyota and the Lexus, and the new(er) GR-series engine uses a chain on both the Toyota and the Lexus.

I'm very interested to hear from the claimant on what engine in particular he or she is talking about.

 

[Klutch9]

Originally Posted By: Spazdog
But back on topic...had a Cruze LS in my shop yesterday.

looks just like a Saturn Astra with a plastic cover over the battery and pink coolant in the reservoir.

Which means it looks just like an Aveo with a slightly different coolant reservoir and airbox with that cover over the battery.

It's the Aveo thing that bothers me. I know it's got an extra 200cc's but......Aveo

. Quite possibly the most vague and unpleasant car I've driven since the 1st generation Kia Sephia or possibly my Chevette.

I didn't get to drive it.

I can only hope that it drives more like what I've heard about the Astra than an Aveo was in person. (at least the Cruze doesn't have all the indecipherable european pictograms and pixel starved MS-DOS displays in the Astra)

What the [heck] is that? Is that button for cassette? 'Cause I couldn't find the cassette opening in the dash...and on the other spoke, what does right triangle and up and down arrows do? oh! Audio. Apparently in Belgium right triangle means audio.


No, that "icon" that looks like a cassette is the button to hang up/end your phone call (assuming you're using the bluetooth phone connectivity feature).

 

[aproch]

Oh and here's another little piece of information. NASCAR v8 motors use a timing belt.... Yes. v8's that are CONSTANTLY turning close to 10,000 rpms run a timing belt(not overhead cam). Plus most of those v8's use a Chevy style valvetrain. All I have to say is that EVERY car is good as long as you take the time to properly maintenance it (except for most Chryslers, those 2.7's are a frightening motor). There is a reason why manufacturers give the customer a maintenance schedule.

I'm actually more concerned about the timing gears in my '99 Cavalier with the 2.2. It has 205K miles on it and to be honest, I beat it like there's no tomorrow. It has start to whine a little louder than when I got it at 96K miles, but whatever, it's a good little car that gets roughly 35mpg at 80mph. I can't complain

 

[artificialist]

Originally Posted By: aproch
Oh and here's another little piece of information. NASCAR v8 motors use a timing belt.... Yes. v8's that are CONSTANTLY turning close to 10,000 rpms run a timing belt(not overhead cam). Plus most of those v8's use a Chevy style valvetrain. All I have to say is that EVERY car is good as long as you take the time to properly maintenance it (except for most Chryslers, those 2.7's are a frightening motor). There is a reason why manufacturers give the customer a maintenance schedule.

I'm actually more concerned about the timing gears in my '99 Cavalier with the 2.2. It has 205K miles on it and to be honest, I beat it like there's no tomorrow. It has start to whine a little louder than when I got it at 96K miles, but whatever, it's a good little car that gets roughly 35mpg at 80mph. I can't complain

Auto racing teams have to constantly remove and re-install engines, so there is little increased cost of having a timing belt compared to having a chain driven engine.

That is why to me, a timing belt is annoying.