Timing Belt Inspection

[cptbarkey]

Your pictures arent great for an assessment. The 3rd picture is the best, and all that can be seen is what looks like a rash on the belt. What you do not want to see is a bunch of black dust because the belt is trashed or hearing bad noises from the area.
Timing belt and water pump replacements should always be done proactively based on time or mileage.
Whatever you read about the Aisin kit on the internet without a citation is hot garbage. Aisin is the best kit you will get without buying an OEM kit.
Good luck.

 

[Charmet37]

Your pictures arent great for an assessment. The 3rd picture is the best, and all that can be seen is what looks like a rash on the belt.
Timing belt and water pump replacements should always be done proactively based on time or mileage.
Whatever you read about the Aisin kit on the internet without a citation is hot garbage. Aisin is the best kit you will get without buying an OEM kit.
Good luck.

Getting the parts from the dealership, Labor is free since I'll be replacing everything myself.

 

[sunroof]

Changing after 3yr/30k seems like a waste to me.

 

[Passport1]

A timely timing belt thread.

My Mitsubishi Outlander has the 3.0 v6. Owner's manual schedule for a belt change is 105K, time not specified. Vehicle has 87K miles and is eleven years old. Need to change or wait until 100K? Also I can't find the proper AISIN kit anywhere. Mitsubishi seems to make lots of their replacement parts proprietary.

 

[Tundragod]

I took my engine out for a RMS on my 2011 Acura MDX. While the engine was out, I "thought" about replacing timing belt and parts. Timing belt was done 37k miles and 8 years ago. Taking my chance........

 

[Nukeman7]

I'm familiar with the shim for ithe idler pulley, The Aisin kit is good. The latest news I read about the kit is the aisin water pump make a gurgling noise and some had issue with the belt.

The TSB 08-031 modification is designed to remedy the chirping noise which some have described as a gurgling noise. I have installed the AISIN kit on four J35 motors along with the (ridiculously expensive) Honda taper shim mod. and have had zero issues with chirping or gurgling noise. All of my AISIN kits came with a high quality Mitsuboshi timing belt. Mitsuboshi is a OEM supplier of belts for certain Honda models.

There's 30,000 miles on the the belt

If you are absolutely certain that the belt is only 3 years old and has 30,000 miles on it, it is premature to replace it now. Two of the J35 engines that I performed the timing belt service on had 10-12 y.o. OEM Unitta-Gates (Japan, not USA) belts with ~140,000 miles on them which still looked almost new. However, your belt looks more worn than those OEM belts I replaced.

The other question is whether the previous owner replaced all of the other components (water pump, idler & tensioner pulleys, tensioner assembly, crank seal, etc.) along with the timing belt. If these are unknowns, I'd replace everything and perform the oil pump reseal as suggested by @The Critic so you can sleep well at night.

 

[QwikKota]

30k miles is nothing.

 

[zzyzzx]

Belts always look fine on the opposite end of where it snapped. Just say'in.

 

[Lubener]

There's 30,000 miles on the the belt

The earliest belt replacement interval I have seen was 5 year/ 60k miles. Maybe your owners manual can shed some light on the change interval.

 

[benjamming]

The TSB 08-031 modification is designed to remedy the chirping noise which some have described as a gurgling noise. I have installed the AISIN kit on four J35 motors along with the (ridiculously expensive) Honda taper shim mod. and have had zero issues with chirping or gurgling noise. All of my AISIN kits came with a high quality Mitsuboshi timing belt. Mitsuboshi is a OEM supplier of belts for certain Honda models.


If you are absolutely certain that the belt is only 3 years old and has 30,000 miles on it, it is premature to replace it now. Two of the J35 engines that I performed the timing belt service on had 10-12 y.o. OEM Unitta-Gates (Japan, not USA) belts with ~140,000 miles on them which still looked almost new. However, your belt looks more worn than those OEM belts I replaced.

The other question is whether the previous owner replaced all of the other components (water pump, idler & tensioner pulleys, tensioner assembly, crank seal, etc.) along with the timing belt. If these are unknowns, I'd replace everything and perform the oil pump reseal as suggested by @The Critic so you can sleep well at night.

You're not joking about the ridiculously expensive shim kit.
Honda p/n 04148-RCA-305 is for 2005 models. HondaAutomotiveParts.com (Balise Honda) shows list price as $783.65 with a sell price of $536.02.
Honda p/n 04148-RCA-306 is for 2006-2009 models. List price appears to be $546.53 on hondapartsnow.com with sell price of $378.75.

 

[Hall]

There's 30,000 miles on the the belt

That's odd that you're even thinking about doing this job at this mileage.

The earliest belt replacement interval I have seen was 5 year/ 60k miles.

Honda used to recommend replacement around 60k miles but has moved to 100-105k miles since at least 2012. I had a '99 Accord and the owners manual for it said 60k.

 

[Hall]

You're not joking about the ridiculously expensive shim kit.

I don't know if it's related or not but I remember Aisin kits came with a shim or shim kit and instructions on which models/years to use it for. Same thing ? Based on the cost of the Honda parts, I suspect not. The shim(s) were either basic flat pieces or maybe "wavy washers", as I recall.

 

[Nukeman7]

You're not joking about the ridiculously expensive shim kit.
Honda p/n 04148-RCA-305 is for 2005 models. HondaAutomotiveParts.com (Balise Honda) shows list price as $783.65 with a sell price of $536.02.
Honda p/n 04148-RCA-306 is for 2006-2009 models. List price appears to be $546.53 on hondapartsnow.com with sell price of $378.75.

Your linked parts include the OEM Unitta timing belt and drive pulley gear along with those taper shims. However, you can buy the taper shims separately. The shims I got from my local Acura dealer were "discounted" from $54 to $26. It was part number 14559-RCA-305.

I don't know if it's related or not but I remember Aisin kits came with a shim or shim kit and instructions on which models/years to use it for. Same thing ? Based on the cost of the Honda parts, I suspect not. The shim(s) were either basic flat pieces or maybe "wavy washers", as I recall.

It's actually the Gates timing belt kit for the J35 engine that comes with a taper shims. The shim is thicker on the left edge than the right edge; hence the white paint mark must face forward and down for proper orientation.