Ok guys at service they mentioned the timing belt doesn't last so long on Fiat/Alpha Romeo's and that i shouldnt listen to Fiat's ridiculous recommendation on the service schedule that says 5 years or 70k. Bearing in mind that this is an interference engine (1.4 16v) and i dont want to have an engine rebuild, what do you guys think? My car is 2.5 years old on 35 k.

For once they are correct. Various sources on here say the belt manufacture revised it to 36 months or 36k mileage which is what I stick to with our 1.4 Stilo (same engine)

Not so!!

The Alfa (maybe similar to those Alphas you heard about ) Romeo Twin-Spark engines had an over-enthusiastic cam-belt change interval @ 72,000 miles. The trouble is they forgot to tell the cam-belt tensioner and it frequently failed, which caused an issue.

There were also other, more freakish failures of water pumps (run via the cam-belt) and even balancer or aux-belt failures, which caused pieces to be sucked into the cam-belt run and all ending badly. AR eventually recommended a 36,000 mile change interval, even though there have been a few different tensioners and the problem design has been sorted.

However, you don't (or shouldn't) have a Twin-Spark cam-belt tensioner on your motore. You have a hopefully more robust design.. also potentially operating under less duress than a T/Spark tensioner.

The belt itself will be made by Gates or Conti-tech and is veeeeery unlikely to just snap on its own.. (or rather less likely than the garage just repeating horror stories and/or deliberately trying to fleece you).

But it's a bit of a Russian Roulette job and the only thing worse than a cam-belt failure is the smart-alecs who will tell you "I told you so... " so if it was me, until we hear of millions of belt-failures (or lack of..) I'd change it at the closest service to 60,000 miles (54,000 is it?) and 5 years.

If you get the chance to get hold of the tensioner and the belt, you'll be able to have a look and judge for yourself how "new" they look and feel.. If the tensioner rolls around freely and makes a whirring noise, then it's wearing.... if it's still firm to turn and silent... it would've run to 70k easy..


Ralf S.

Ralf S. said:

Not so!!

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Is it so, so no early failures on any of the 1.4's and no revision by the belt manufacture

Seem I and half the forum have been misinformed then.

If you want to save money on timing belt changes and still want an Italian car you should buy a new Ferrari, they all now have timing chains...also if you buy a new one you get 7 years servicing for free and it's unlimited milage! That should save you all loads of money.

glad I could be of help

If it was me i would err on the side of caution and change it at 36000 seen belts break to many times when i was a mechanic because people didn't heed the advice.

RUI said:

If you want to save money on timing belt changes and still want an Italian car you should buy a new Ferrari, they all now have timing chains...also if you buy a new one you get 7 years servicing for free and it's unlimited milage! That should save you all loads of money.

glad I could be of help

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Should have hit like :bang:

my t-jet is on 6 years/81,000 now, will be doing it soon.

the original timing belt interval for the fiat 16v engine was 8 years/72,000 miles, this was later revised to 5 years/72,000 miles.

i would say 5 yrs/60k would be the minimum id do it but upto you.

the alfa twin spark is common to snap due to the set up, but no the fiat engine, totaly different.

ahmett said:

Ok guys at service they mentioned the timing belt doesn't last so long on Fiat/Alpha Romeo's and that i shouldnt listen to Fiat's ridiculous recommendation on the service schedule that says 5 years or 70k. Bearing in mind that this is an interference engine (1.4 16v) and i dont want to have an engine rebuild, what do you guys think? My car is 2.5 years old on 35 k.

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Inclined to agree with beau. If you've been regularly red lining it I would think 4 years 50K otherwise 5 years 60K. Still the cambelt it relatively cheap to replace on a 500 1.4 and that's compared to a Marea 1.6 which has not been done since the car was new and it's does 120K.

Thank you for your feedback. I will make a decision soon and let you know what I do about it. I will take pictures of the timing belt when I change it, and give details of the mileage and age etc.

Most Easterly Pandas said:

Is it so, so no early failures on any of the 1.4's and no revision by the belt manufacture

Seem I and half the forum have been misinformed then.

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I dunno... but the OP said he was told that belts don't last that long on Fiat and Alfa engines and THAT was the reason to change the belt on his 500.

I'm just saying change the belt if it needs changing, not just because a completely un-related engine made 10 years ago once had a dicky tensioner..


Visually inspect the belt. I'm sure that with just 35k on it, your belt will look shiny, supple and have no visible wear on the teeth (they have tiny pimples moulded on them). :thumbs:

If it's matt, dry-looking and the teeth are "rounded" and the rubber surface is smooth.. or the belt has cracks in it, then it is worn out and so do change it..

The only other areas that can fail is the tensioner and the water pump. I'm guessing (hoping) your pump is so new that "it can't posssssibly go wrong" yet.. but the tensioner.. have a look.

If it's clean and dry and has no corrosion on it, and it's correctly tensioned, then it's in as good shape as you can visually deduce. When they go, it's the bearings that collapse or the sprung tension falls off (loose tensioner... it's all factory torqued, isn't it? ).

If your tension is good, then it's unlikely to come loose now, after all this time. If the tensioner is quiet when it runs, then the bearings are pretty happy.

I ran a tensioner for 120,000 miles once by mistake .. It was absoluetely knackered... but that's way different to throwing a good one away at just a quarter of that mileage..


Ralf S.

Ralf S. said:

I dunno... but the OP said he was told that belts don't last that long on Fiat and Alfa engines and THAT was the reason to change the belt on his 500.

I'm just saying change the belt if it needs changing, not just because a completely un-related engine made 10 years ago once had a dicky tensioner..


Visually inspect the belt. I'm sure that with just 35k on it, your belt will look shiny, supple and have no visible wear on the teeth (they have tiny pimples moulded on them). :thumbs:

If it's matt, dry-looking and the teeth are "rounded" and the rubber surface is smooth.. or the belt has cracks in it, then it is worn out and so do change it..

The only other areas that can fail is the tensioner and the water pump. I'm guessing (hoping) your pump is so new that "it can't posssssibly go wrong" yet.. but the tensioner.. have a look.

If it's clean and dry and has no corrosion on it, and it's correctly tensioned, then it's in as good shape as you can visually deduce. When they go, it's the bearings that collapse or the sprung tension falls off (loose tensioner... it's all factory torqued, isn't it? ).

If your tension is good, then it's unlikely to come loose now, after all this time. If the tensioner is quiet when it runs, then the bearings are pretty happy.

I ran a tensioner for 120,000 miles once by mistake .. It was absoluetely knackered... but that's way different to throwing a good one away at just a quarter of that mileage..


Ralf S.

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From experience I got the feeling that the belt starts getting noisy if it is about to break! So far it sounds just fine. And of course there is no water leaking from the bottom of the car so I cant see anything that can be wrong with the water pump after less than 2.5 years!

RUI, you don't need a Ferrari - my TA has a chain, too!

TrevC said:

RUI, you don't need a Ferrari - my TA has a chain, too!

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Do you get 7 years free servicing?

RUI said:

Do you get 7 years free servicing?

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Imagine! haha but i would assume 7 years of free servicing to cost about 2000 euros. So maybe it would be better to have the car cheaply than adding 2000 euros to the purchase price.

Had my timong belt changed at 56,000 miles & 4 years of age on my MJet 1.9 GP.
It was showing wear, tiny cracks thats all, but the coolant pump was ready to die of dead bearings. There was play in the bearing, so I'm glad it was done as that wear would be slowly reducing the belt running tension.

Better safe I'd say.

Ffoxy said:

Had my timong belt changed at 56,000 miles & 4 years of age on my MJet 1.9 GP.
It was showing wear, tiny cracks thats all, but the coolant pump was ready to die of dead bearings. There was play in the bearing, so I'm glad it was done as that wear would be slowly reducing the belt running tension.

Better safe I'd say.

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From what I see water pumps deteriorate more with age than mileage. Anyone else disagree? So I would say 4 years for sure to do the whole deal as you have done.

Disagree - provided a car is filled with clean water and good antifreeze/inhibitors. The carbon/ceramic seal on a water pump will wear through use (i.e. mechanical wear) rather than ageing over time.

bgunn said:

Disagree - provided a car is filled with clean water and good antifreeze/inhibitors. The carbon/ceramic seal on a water pump will wear through use (i.e. mechanical wear) rather than ageing over time.

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What about the bearings though, will they not wear through time, possibly even lack of use

My feeling is that replacing the belt tensioners and pump is mad after 2 years/36k. I may have a proper look in a month then decide whether to change or go another year and do the lot.