The people I am buying this 03 Lancer from only owned it for eight months, so they do not know if the timing belt had been replaced around 60,000 miles like it should have been.

I called Mitsubishi to ask if the service records show the timing belt having been done. (Thanks to kidneythief for supplying that number!) They didn't know. But the lady I spoke to said that a mechanic should be able to fairly easily see by the amount of wear on the timing belt if it is a 75,000 mile old belt or a 15,000 mile old belt.

Any idea what kind of labor cost this would be to inspect the wear on the belt? You have to tear down the top of the motor to even see the thing, don't you?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts, advice, opinions.

 

I hate to break this to you, but when I had my timing belt done on my 02 Lancer at 55000, it looked in really good shape. It all depends on how the car was driven by the previous owners. Tell the people that you might buy the car from that you want all of that looked at or you will not buy the car. If they won't, move on and find another car.

 

i just change H2O pump and belts at 60k (i'm going to do it at 35 on the evo). and like ^ said, they'll usually do that (or you can ask to take it to your mechanic) if your're going to buy a car off the dealer. my fiance's vw cabriolet was inspected by her mechanic, and was found to have a leaky tranny at the seals.

 

you can remove the top half of the cover in maybe 2 minutes. you can inspect the belt yourself. the black cover on the left side of your engine is the timing belt cover. you can inspect for any damage or major wear this way.

i changed my timing belt with a friend at almost 104k... and it was good i did it then!

 

Thanks!

 

Yep, my factory belt @ 73k looked close to new! But better safe than sorry, right.

 

Yeah, we're gonna have to get it done... about $600 with water pump, etc.

 

^Major ouch to the wallet! You can do it yourself in a day for <$150. Did it myself and without an impact gun. Oh the memories!

 

WOW!!!!

I just today purchased everything to change my timing belt.
I bought the following:

Timing Belt, Tensioner, Water Pump, Cam Seal, Crank Seal, Value Gasket Seal, Oil, oil filter, Antifreeze and engine cleaner and I was at $179.25. I had to go to 4 different auto parts store to find everything....

Now my old timing belt looked like new, but it slipped while my wife was driving lucky she was coming to a stop and going about 5 mph. So I would not inspected it and be happy. Replace it. Best $175.00 you could spend. Better then replacing a head with bent values and maybe a lower end because you put a hole in the piston. Just my 0.02 worth...

 

wait....im a bit of a nOOb in the engine compartment... but was wondering

how would i go about checking the belt... like where are the screws and how many

and what am i looking for? what should it look like?

 

yeah im in the same boat have no idea if mines ever been done, my car has 83k right now and im adding about 1k a week, ill prolly do mine at 100k if the belt breaks gives you more of a reason to tear the motor apart and upgrade. time kills belts more than mileage does...

 

so i figured id just take a shot at it and figured the stuff out... not that hard... but i got some pics of the timing belt... i dont know how to tell if its good or not. there are no teeth missing or anything, but there is a lot of brown dust covering everything under the cover!!! if anyone can tell from the pics let me know. also the belt is original...still has the Mitsubishi part number and stuff on it

 

the timing belt seems alot easier than the others, my timing was done right before i got mine, but damn when i did the other belts i had a hell of a time