Timing Belts & Antifreeze, etc.

[Bernie Benz]

on 1/28/03 8:19 PM, wolff at turboquattro.com at wolff at turboquattro.com wrote:

> This is what 98k miles looks like.
> http://www.succulents.com/quattro/belt.jpg
> I doubt the last 8k miles are when it started looking so bad, but certainly
> at 8 years and 98k miles I was lucky this belt didn't let go.
IMO, its a fair probability that the back side cracking you show did happen
in the last 8K miles, caused by a stiffening/failing idler bearing.
Further, IMO and the tensile testing results of similar 150K belts, this is
a superficial appearance problem, not an indication of impending failure.
The newer, '90s on, radiused tooth profile TBs are far superior to the old
trapizoidal tooth profile belts of the '70s and '80s, why the car mfgs have
increased their conserative TB change intervals up from 60K to 90 and 120K.
Just keep them tight!
> BTW, I have seen teeth strip out of an externally perfect looking belt, so
> just because it looks good, does not mean it is good.
Such a TB failure is only caused by problems external to the belt, such as a
piece of distributor drive gear getting caught between a cam lobe and
follower, and is independent of previous belt life.

Bernie
> Wolff