Timing Belt?

I want to get this car but my mom said timing belt should have been changed at 60k miles. The guy who owns it bought it last year so he doesnt know if timing belt was changed. How important is this and anyone know how I can find out if it was changed already?

Replace it

It is very important, and if the guy says he doesn't remember i am thinking that he did not have it changed. You dont just forget if you had a timing belt replaced.

Let me just say this one simple thing.... Replace it, if your timing belt breaks, you can say good bye to all 16 of your valves.... it will cost $350w/labor, but its worth it

I called about it and they said they HAVE to replace the water pump at the same time and all together it comes out to 650$, which is not the extra cash i want to put into a car RIGHT after buying it. The guy didnt get the car till 80k miles so it was the owner before him who would have had it changed, but I guess I need to find the maintenance records. Im wondering tho, I found a car at a dealership and it doesnt cost all that much more, would I be safer buying it from a dealership?

I called about it and they said they HAVE to replace the water pump at the same time and all together it comes out to 650$, which is not the extra cash i want to put into a car RIGHT after buying it. The guy didnt get the car till 80k miles so it was the owner before him who would have had it changed, but I guess I need to find the maintenance records. Im wondering tho, I found a car at a dealership and it doesnt cost all that much more, would I be safer buying it from a dealership?


I would change it too. My gst I'm selling cost over $750 to get all of that done. Buying from a dealership really doesn't give you any more security if something breaks. I personally like buying from individuals who have had the car for a while and know how it was treated. What are you buying?

Thanks for the info, im buying a 97 Eclipse GST...Im looking at 2 diff ones I found but im worried about stuff like crankwalk, timing belts, transmission, etc. I dont know a whole lot about the inner working of cars so im scared of getting screwed over.

Theres are the 2 im looking at right now...

White GST 97 (http://www.autotrader.com/findacar/vdetail.jtmpl?car_id=145962409&dealer_id=1092700&car_year=1997&make=MIT&distance=200&max_price=8000&model=ECLIP&advcd_on=n&end_year=1999&min_price=0&certified=n&address=32669&search_type=used&advanced=n&start_year=1997&color=&cardist=98)

Black GST 97 (http://autotrader.com/findacar/vdetail.jtmpl?car_id=137709236&dealer_id=&car_year=1997&make=MIT&distance=300&max_price=8500&model=ECLIP&advcd_on=n&end_year=1998&min_price=0&first_record=26&certified=n&address=32669&search_type=used&advanced=n&start_year=1997&=&color=&cardist=151)

If the tbelt has over ~20-30k miles on it, you can often tell by looking at it. The lettering on the belt will be all worn off. This test only works though if the covers havent been rubbing on the belt ;) If the work was done at the dealer, they MIGHT have records of it, but the only thing they really keep track of is the waranty service records... I do my tbelt jobs for ~250 in parts. I charge poeple ~150 in labor. I dont know how these dealerships sleep at night charging so damn much. At the same time, you really cant trust random shops with a DSM tbelt job. I dont even trust the dealer, which is why I do my own (plus that money thing). Usually every regional DSM club has a couple guys that will do tbelt jobs cheap. Check with poeple hes done work for in the past to make sure hes cool, and you can save a lot of money and probalby be more likely to have it done right. There is a vfaq on how to do it, etc. (www.vfaq.com).