Major car maintenance

Salvation122

So, I drive a '95 Eclipse. It's got 181k miles on it, almost all of them highway miles. I've been told by my father that the timing belt will need to be changed in the near future, based on whenever he got it changed last back when I was in high school. Generally speaking, is this something that a dude with little car maintenance experience can do with a set of jacks and general tools, or is it something I should really take it to a mechanic for? I've got the cash for the mechanic, but I'd prefer to do it myself if it's unlikely I can kill the car - I swapped out the radiator about a year ago and saved myself something like five hundred bucks in labor costs, so if I can do that again it'd be awesome.

Gafoto

Don't grab your wrenches just yet but I believe this is a visual FAQ for changing the timing belt out:

http://www.vfaq.com/mods/timingbelt-2G.html

It's always possible, but changing the timing belt is fairly involved and I believe (don't quote me on this) you would need to remove the engine which would require an engine hoist. You might want to look up more information on the process before deciding one way or the other.

Aurin

Newp, shouldn't need to take the engine out to get to the timing belt. Some special tools are required though. Your best bet would be to find a Hayne's or Chilton's manual for your car and do it that way. Good luck man.

wallabeeX

Seconding the "buy a manual and then decide". Also, check out the online Eclipse forums - this might be a more appropriate question for that crowd. The complexity of the timing belt largely varies from car to car based on how the engine is layed out and how the belt system was done. For some cars, it's as simple as popping the belt off and putting a new one on. On other cars, like my Audi for example, you have to take the whole front nose of the car off to do it.

Buy a manual, talk to people who know Eclipses.

Midshipman

I can't speak to your specific car, but most likely it will involve removing an engine mount (which merely requires that you put a jack stand under the engine to help support it). The trickiest part if you have an automatic will probably be removing the belt pulley from your crankshaft. If you don't have a special tool to hold the pulley in place, you'll need either a powerful impact wrench, or be creative with a braking bar (long handled socket wrench essentially).

Basically the issue with the pulley is that it's attached to the crankshaft, and if you have an automatic transmission you won't be able to leave it in gear when off. That means that when you try and remove the bolt, you'll end up cranking the engine over instead. There are special tools (often hard to acquire without spending a lot), that will hold you specific pulley in place. An impact wrench is like a powered socket driver that instead of applying continuous force, applies a rapid series of impacts to turn a bolt. Usually you'll need an pneumatic (air powered) one as the electric variety tend to be a bit weak for the job. In my case, I took a look at my crank rotation direction, put a braking on the pulley bolt, put a block of wood under my bumper, and then had a friend turn on the ignition for a second or two. This resulted in the braking bar slamming into the block of wood and loosening the pulley bolt. To put it back on, I used a cheap electric impact wrench (that wasn't quite strong enough to loosen the bolt).

Also, before you remove the timing belt, make some marks on all the pulleys that it connects to so that you are sure to keep everything aligned when you put the new belt on.

Edit: I'm not really a fan of the Chilton and Haynes manuals. I'd reccomend that you get a subscription for your car on alldata.com (they have a DIY section). Alldata is usually much much more detailed, has diagrams for many more procedures, and includes useful things like torque specifications that Chilton/Haynes seem to usually overlook.

Djeet

I'm not a fan of alldata. Perhaps they only had poor coverage for my car ('05 Legacy), but the diagrams/schematics were very poor (crude line art). I ended up buying a Haynes as well, and that worked for me for the job I needed (brake pad replacement and brake line flush). The Haynes had pictures alongside the procedures as well as exploded diagrams of components.

Salvation122

I drive a standard; I don't know if that's likely to make shit easier or harder (seems like easier.)

I'll be calling the dealership either today or tomorrow to find out exactly how much cash I'd be saving, as my on-hand tools basically consist of a ratchet set, a socket wrench set, and some screwdrivers, and I'd rather not have to jury-rig shit to take apart critical timing components.

Daenris

Yeah... if you don't have the tools to do it, changing the timing belt is going to be a serious pain in the ass to do yourself. Hell, even with the proper tools it was a pain in the ass to change the first time I'd ever done one.

I'll just echo people here and say if you are going to do it you definitely want to get a Haynes or Chilton manual for your specific model. You may or may not have to support/jack the engine. We didn't in an 88 or 93 escort, but I don't know about your car.

CooterTKE

unless you absolutely know what your doing i would not replace the timing belt yourself. I have done a few and I swear the next time I am paying for it to be done.

bowen

Salvation122 wrote: »

I drive a standard; I don't know if that's likely to make shit easier or harder (seems like easier.)

I'll be calling the dealership either today or tomorrow to find out exactly how much cash I'd be saving, as my on-hand tools basically consist of a ratchet set, a socket wrench set, and some screwdrivers, and I'd rather not have to jury-rig shit to take apart critical timing components.

A lot, you'd be better off going to a private shop. Dealership wanted to charge me $1500 for it, private shops charged $600. Granted, mine was an automatic so I'm sure that had something to do with the inflated price too. (two weeks later my bearings went )

Salvation122

bowen wrote: »

(two weeks later my bearings went )

WOW. That blows. How many miles?

Lord Yod

If you don't know what you're doing, I highly recommend taking it to a shop. Screwing up the timing belt installation can result in thousands of dollars of damage to your engine. (Bent valves) When they ask if you want your main seal and water pump changed, say yes, you will save a lot of money on labor in the long run that way.

Salvation122

My water pump was actually changed relatively recently. Couple years ago or so, maybe three. Don't know about the seal.

Lord Yod

Generally you do them all at the same time, because you need to do a lot of the same steps for each.

Salvation122

I know, but I think the situation was something like "it costs $80 to get a water pump replaced and like $700 for everything, everything else is good for another two or three years, why would I do that."

I dunno, like I said I need to call around and see how much they want to charge me, because after looking through the manual that's a bunch of proprietary tools that I'm certain are not cheap and a relatively involved procedure and knowing my dumb ass I'd put the wrong pully in the wrong place and my car would explode or something.

Lord Yod

Right see, the thing is, spending that $80 now saves you from having to spend $400 replacing the water pump in another year/two years. Just sayin.

firewaterword

Regarding the timing belt - it's entirely possible you can do it. But know that you run the risk of seriously harming your engine if you don't do it properly. For what it's worth, I'd suggest just biting the bullet and taking it to a shop you trust.

Also, and this is totally off topic and I apologize, but that post you made about the IM conversation which resulted in a stranger getting punched in the face seriously improved my work week. So thanks for that.

bowen

Salvation122 wrote: »

bowen wrote: »

(two weeks later my bearings went )

WOW. That blows. How many miles?

$900 for my bearings too. I replaced the car shortly after, which I probably shouldn't have.