[s-cars] Top 10 reasons to change your timing belt long before its due are...

[Robert Rossato]

Age most certainly plays a factor on the deterioration of rubber goods.
Unless you keep it stored in an inert environment, i.e. nitrogen, you
will get oxidation of the belt.  Certain rubbers, such as silicone and
viton, are fairly immune to age, but a timing belt isn't.  And you can't
tell just by looks how long a belt will last.

For an example of an old low mileage belt failure, there was the
incident Michele Mouton had with an S1 at the Goodwood Speed Festival.
And this is a car that probably spent practically it's entire life in a
heated garage.
http://www.audifans.com/pipermail/quattro/2001-November/038053.html 

If it was a non-interference engine I would say keep going until it
failed.  But with our engines I think you're really taking your chances
waiting 11 years to change the belt regardless of how low the mileage
is.  I start getting uncomfortable after 7 years.

Bob

> -----Original Message-----
> From: s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com 
> [mailto:s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com] On Behalf Of Jerry Scott
> Sent: Friday, October 28, 2005 2:52 PM
> To: s-car-list
> Subject: Re: [s-cars] Top 10 reasons to change your timing 
> belt long before its due are...
> 
> 
> Mark
> I'm not sure that I agree with that.  I changed mine for the 
> first time 
> last year on a 93 with 70K miles.   The belts were 11 years old and 
> looked great with no cracks.  OK, so the car sits in a heated garage 
> most of the time, and belts don't see much in the way of temperature 
> changes.
> Jerry
> 
> Mark Pollan wrote:
> 
> >OUCH!!  Common wisdom is to change everything at 60K mile 
> intervals but how
> >bout time?  I did mine in 2001 at 60K miles and now have 90K 
> miles.  During
> >her winter lay-up when I plan on RS2ing and bushinging and 
> mounting (leave
> >it be please) I'll also be t-belting.  Age IMUO (IM 
> Unsubstantiated O) is as
> >likely to cause failure as mileage.
> >
> >Regards,
> >
> >Mark
> >
> >-----Original Message-----
> >From: s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com
> >[mailto:s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com] On Behalf Of 
> auditechni at yahoo.com
> >Sent: Friday, October 28, 2005 1:05 PM
> >To: s-car-list at audifans.com
> >Subject: [s-cars] Top 10 reasons to change your timing belt 
> long before its
> >due are...
> >
> >
> >http://forums.audiworld.com/s4s6/msgs/89876.phtml
> >
> >Darren