Carina timing belt - Ed Lea
My 4 and a half year old 2.0 litre Carina has completed 57000 trouble-free miles running on Mobil 1.
is it time for a timing belt change and should I do the pulleys/tensioners and end stops ?
Re: Carina timing belt - ladas are slow
if this is 57,000 miles without ever getting the belt changed, then YES get it changed, but if you got it changed at the 30,000 interval, then i would also get it changed about now, just to be on the safe side. also when you get it changed get the tensioners and water pump changed at the same time, because if either of these break then it can seriously damage the engine.
Re: Carina timing belt - Mark (Brazil)
ED,

I am afraid I don't know the answer.

However, please do not trust any answer you get from Ladas ae Slow. I don't know whether he is right or not, sadly neither does he. I would hate to see you either waste your money or damage your engine because of anything that Ladas Are Slow said.

Someone else who can be trusted, and will actually know the answer, will be along shortly to comment, I'm sure.

Mark.

p.s. Ladas are Slow = Christ Watson = ìµÄÊ¥ìʵÄ
Re: Carina timing belt - lada riva owner.
on this occasion i am correct, if you dont replace the water pump, if it fails then the engine overheats, and does alot of damage to the engine. (it happened to a ford cortina we used to have)
Re: Carina timing belt - Brill
There was a little boy who cried "Wolf" too many times . . .

Stu.
Re: Carina timing belt - Mark (Brazil)
Could someone answer Ed's question before he decides we're all about as useful as ìµÄÊ¥ì浀 is.
Re: Carina timing belt - David W
Ed,

Sorry you've ended up in the politics bit. Ladas is broadly correct, similar advice has been given here many times before.

Without knowing your exact engine code I would guess your car has a dealer stated interval of 63,000mls or 5 years for the timing belt change. In any case you are close to both. Our advice here would be to do the belt at an earlier interval so as soon as you can do the job really.

Inspect the water pump, tensioner bearing and any guide rollers. If you have any doubts change them. If the tensioner/rollers have steel pulleys and are in perfect condition only then consider leaving them on. Bear in mind you are doing this belt change for anothe 40-60,000 miles so don't just think how these items seem now, think how they might be before the next belt change. Always err on the safe side.

Bear in mind my advice is not specific to your particular car as I have no experience of the model, but it is good basic stuff.

David
Re: Carina timing belt - Brill
Thus our faith is restored.
Re: Carina timing belt - pete
I had a carina two for four and a half years and 44k miles , it was the first car i had that was paint finnish perfect and totaly reliable ,but did sufer from a intermitant clutch judder, it was fed only ordinary castrol gtx as used by the garage at that time 1year or 6k miles which ever first.

Getting to the point it never occured to me to change the cam belt, refer to the handbook and stick to the recomended intervals. when i sold it the engine was like new, dont change things unless the service schedule says so or you suspect a problem starting to show. Its a Toyota not a ford or vauxhall the engineering standards are higher.
Re: Carina timing belt - neil
I have a 1991 Carina 2 - with the 2-litre 3SFE engine - which now has 147k miles on it and drives better than my 12000 mile Xantia.

I changed the cam belt at 120k as although the car has a full history (!) there was no mention of a belt change so I was getting nervous.

After doing it, ( a horrible, incredibly difficult job on the Carina which almost reduced me to tears, and I've changed dozens of cambelts over the years on al sorts of things including Citroen ZX TD's without problems) I studied the handbook in some detail and came to the conclusion that Mr Toyota recommends a 60k change interval - for taxis and police cars - but no change interval at all for vehicles in other use - either time or mileage.

I then had a very god look at the belt which I'd taken off - which had 'Toyota Motor' on it and an elderly but completely sound appearance. Quite a bit of belt dust in the housing. I would put money on this having been the original.

As someone else said, this is a Toyota. Fed it decent oil and leave it alone unless Mr Toyota tells you otherwise - this is no mortal vehicle!