Car cambelts

[tigersaw]

Mine changed at 40K, 5 years. Mech said belt was perfect, but guides were getting stiff as the grease had all gone, and they cause the belt failure more often than a faulty belt itself.

Use OE stuff too, my friend had two go at 10,000 miles each. The first thing the Ford Mech asked is "Were they from Halfords?", they were and he said that he'd seen it before with belts from there.

They might be the same supplier of course but I think I'd be getting one from a dealer to make sure.

I'm led to believe the service life of a Focus cambelt is 10 years or 100,000 miles (just googled it from focus owners website)

chris

Originally Posted by Vfr400

I'm led to believe the service life of a Focus cambelt is 10 years or 100,000 miles (just googled it from focus owners website)

chris

Yeah it is, I know because mine needs changing lol! Where did Focii get mentioned in this thread though??

[Sid Squid]

Originally Posted by fizzwheel

If you're not sure get it changed.

I'd extend this to: If you're not utterly sure get it changed.

And I'd further echo what Big Ape said. The belts are strong and tough, but they do deteriorate over time as well as use, the mileage figures given are with the assumption that the car is in fairly constant use, such that the mileage will be reached in a reasonable time.

Thanks, I'll pass these suggestions on as fortunately its not mine.

[Viney]

Time.

Depends on how much the car is worth I guess. I had an old Xantia which was only worth a couple of hundred quid, put 70,000 on top of the 90,000 it had already had and never bothered with the cambelt change. As it turns out the rest of the car died long before the (original, never changed) cambelt died; but if it hadn't then the cost of a new banger would have been about the cost of a cambelt change.
As mentioned, non-interference engines are great in that if they snap the valves/piston heads don't get damaged but they are fairly rare. www.honestjohn.co.uk is a good site for figuring out what goes wrong on a car by car basis.
If you want to keep the car though, I'd suggest changing it, 7 years is quite old regardless of mileage - plus old age and low mileage suggests lots of short journeys, precisely the type of driving which puts an extra strain on all sorts of components.

[Viney]

Ah, a point has been rised. Its not always the belts. If its like Vernas Lupo, the rollers and guides break up after 40k, or at least prone to, so time i would go for. grease dries up etc.

[timwilky]

If you are questioning it, it is time to do it, otherwise your false economy could end up seeing you replacing vales, pistons, head etc all for the sake of a couple of quid on a new belt.

I tend to do mine (Well my kids ) round the 50,000 mark. I didn't read what car you own. But for some they would also recommend you change the tensioners as well etc. If DIYing, it is generally an easy job, but can be fiddly if you need to remove engine mounts etc for access