Timing Belt Life

[mrtew]

Thanks, that doesn't seem as bad as I feared it would be! Maybe I'll do it after all!

[CatFish]

Thanks, that doesn't seem as bad as I feared it would be! Maybe I'll do it after all!

If you can do it yourself that would be the cheapest if not a good shop could do the timing belt and water pump for $450-$600. Even though the VX has a non-interference engine I think it is best to replace it because rubber ages and gets brittle and can stretch, I do not know how that would effect the engine or other components but I am one of those people that does not wait until my VX breaks down to fix stuff. I am proactive and do maintenance to all vehicles regularly. With that said I have gotten 200K plus out of many vehicles mostly Isuzus so I will continue to fix and replace stuff that is not broken so it might last longer and not break down.

I love old cars and trucks the VX is my newest vehicle and I have done the math on yearly cost of ownership of my vehicles. What I found was, if a new car payment is say $300-$400 a month and insurance is $100-$200 that is $400-$600 per month, so you could spend $4,800-$7,200 per year for a new car and it still could break down. My logic is I can own cool old cars and spend $3,000 per year on maintenance and repairs and still come out way ahead, but I was curious what I was spending per year and since I keep all my receipts I did the math and found I spend on average $2,500 per year including insurance, when I take the purchase price and what I spent on the vehicle before I sold it. My 96 Trooper was only $2,000 per year so if you look at it this way owning a older used car or truck is a win, at least it is to me.