I have almost 56,000 miles on my Lancer. I've been reading on here that around 50-60k miles it's time to change the timing belt. Are there any good walkthroughs online for this procedure? I know how to do it for the most part but there are a couple of things I'll need to know before diving off on such an serious job. Thanks for any help!

 

What do you need to know?

 

There is no How-To and you're probably better of just paying someone to do it, unless you really feel confident you can do it. Just don't bend your valves

 

What the crap?! I typed up a reply on here like hours ago and it's not here! Anyway, things I need to know are for example: Where does the camshaft have to be set when I'm putting the belt on? How do I know if it's on the intake or exhaust stroke or does that matter on these engines? How do I not bend the valves if that is possible?

I've also heard that when reinstalling the crank pully you have to use a screw drive and jam the flywheel to hold it still cause if it moves when you are putting the pully on you could risk damaging something.... I'm assuming they were talking about the valves.

One last thing, are there any idler arms or tensioners that you recommend changing when doing this job or is that mainly something I'll have to assess when I get there? Is the water pump behind the crank pully and if it is should I replace it was well or do those things usually last a long time?

Anybody know how much a dealer would probably charge to do a job like this? I normally wouldn't engage in a job like this with my own car but I just recently helped a friend change the timing belt on his Sebring and I've also helped change one on an eclipse before so I mostly know what to do. I also wanna change out my crank pully for one of the aluminum ones from RRM while I'm doing this and I know the dealer won't do that. Sorry to talk your ears off....

 

its a little over $300 here...for the timing belt service...