132k miles on the original timing belt. Don't be scared.
 

At 132k miles my alternator cavatated and killed my accessory belt, so it's finally time to do some "scheduled" maintenance. I've had my '03 since new and it still retains all of it's original parts, save for a radiator (118k) and brakes.

Ordered up the 60k (laugh) service kit and began seeing what 8 years of daily driving in Florida had done.

Needless to say all of my other belts are fcking mint.


http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t...d/976c197b.jpg

Not sure why you waited so long to do the scheduled maintenance, but that belt looks good.

You got lucky.

Yep...luck

Braver man than me for sure.

crazy

I would never risk that, the most I would have gone is 70k.

lucky you bro!!!............{thumbup}

Later tonight I'll take some more pictures and catalog how well original equipment actually stands up to time. Tensioners, sparkplugs, etc.

I've been a firm believer that maintenance intervals are way shorted. I've been doing 10k mile oil changes on all of my vehicles since the mid 90's when people scoffed at going longer than 5k. Now we see 7, 10, 12k mile being suggested by manufacturers and it's all just marketing bs to try and grab the bad economy consumer who wants to save money.

These cars were built at the height of mechanical engineering, before electronics and foo-foo creature comforts were the goal and they'll run forever. /diatribe.

yea all our new fords oil changes are 10k... nuts to some but technology's a ***** lol

Very interested to see the condition of the balance shaft belt. That one always wore out first on dsm's.

Balance belt:

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t...d/7f3f7f5d.jpg

:lol: i changed my timing belt at 36k when i had the cams done. But my car had a weird noise coming from that area which we believe was contributed to the sand we found in that section. Thats south GA for ya.

Nice to see the belt lasted that long. I would have figured it would have stretched

My balance belt gave out on me and took out my crank sensor...killing my motor and saving it at the same time....After taking her apart, I discovered my timing belt was about to let loose too but held on long enough for the crank sensor to get smashed by the balance belt pieces.

You are lucky to say the least.....and I would NOT recommend others to take this king of leisurely approach your cars recommended scheduled maintenance.

Glad you are now taking care of the maintenance that should have taken place MILES ago.

P.S. AND this happened to me around 65K.....

Im At 134k...Original timing belt..