Technical Timing belts in the real world vs the manual

[SquareWheel]

Fiat 500 Owners, in the REAL WORLD how often are you (and your 500 owning friends) getting your timing belts changed? Does anyone know of a timing belt that did fail, and if yes, what age/distance had the poor wee thing travelled?

The information i'm reading about the Fiat 500 timing belt, and when it needs to be replaced, is seriously confounding

The Australian manual (fine print) says every 4 years no matter what the km's; in various other countries the suggested intervals can be as long as every 10 - 15 years.

Australia definitely seems to be the most conservative, but making the reasonable assumption that the cars mechanics are similar the world over, surely that means folks overseas *should* be experiencing timing belt failures left, right and centre because they aren't thinking about changing before 10+ years. Yet, nope, i'm not reading that at all

 

[John202020]

A rubber belt will never go 10-15 years our car was 7 years old when I had it done as there was no history of it being replaced at about 55,000 miles if that helps generally it's every 5 years I think meaning ours is now late

 

[RalphM]

I would think the recommendations take into account the conditions they
operate under, hot cold, dusty dry, wet icy, as well as other's.

 

[Gina500]

A rubber belt will never go 10-15 years our car was 7 years old when I had it done as there was no history of it being replaced at about 55,000

I own a suzuki vitara that‘s now 30 years old. Ok, japanese (no failures), free moving engine (8v). Changed the steering belt after 20 years and 120k km. No signs of wear on the belt and tensioner roll.
All other belts are still the originals at now 180k km. I did not even bother to change the water pump then and it is still going fine.
Not that I would recommend that for the 500, it‘s italian after all and as we all see they built the 500 quite cheap on most if not all parts. But it shows there is a lot of headroom in the material, and after all these are items that are not made by Fiat. On the other hand probably awarded to the lowest bidder…

 

[varesecrazy]

Water pump might fail 1st.. throwing the belt

 

[eeeno]

Australia might classify as severe climate for the timing belt, so I think you should get the belt changed at suggested intervals regardless of miles. Finland Fiat reseller had three years and 18k miles (30k km) schedule. Can you believe that!? Well, I checked the belt on 1.4 8V engine, at four years of age it had developed a severe crack at the base of the tooth. I'm not going to wait any longer than four years for the next belt change.

It's false economy trying to save money by not doing the belt change on time. I thought that my car could be fine five years at least. Apparently not!

 

[John202020]

Australia might classify as severe climate for the timing belt, so I think you should get the belt changed at suggested intervals regardless of miles. Finland Fiat reseller had three years and 18k miles (30k km) schedule. Can you believe that!? Well, I checked the belt on 1.4 8V engine, at four years of age it had developed a severe crack at the base of the tooth. I'm not going to wait any longer than four years for the next belt change.

It's false economy trying to save money by not doing the belt change on time. I thought that my car could be fine five years at least. Apparently not!

My old Honda's had a 12 week oil change in extreme circumstances! That said in 30+ years of driving them only ever suffered two breakdowns (ignition key switch and electronic ignition module)

 

[eeeno]

So the original question was that how long can one drive until the belt snaps. Well, it's obvious, it can do many many miles until it snaps, so one can drive as long as one likes until it snaps. I think after four years the risk starts growing, so every four years is a very safe interval. Five years if you don't care, and six years if you hate the damn thing anyway.

 

[Oz500]

Fiat 500 Owners, in the REAL WORLD how often are you (and your 500 owning friends) getting your timing belts changed? Does anyone know of a timing belt that did fail, and if yes, what age/distance had the poor wee thing travelled?

The information i'm reading about the Fiat 500 timing belt, and when it needs to be replaced, is seriously confounding

The Australian manual (fine print) says every 4 years no matter what the km's; in various other countries the suggested intervals can be as long as every 10 - 15 years.

Australia definitely seems to be the most conservative, but making the reasonable assumption that the cars mechanics are similar the world over, surely that means folks overseas *should* be experiencing timing belt failures left, right and centre because they aren't thinking about changing before 10+ years. Yet, nope, i'm not reading that at all

I'm in Aus. In Qld.
The jellybean (2008 Fiat 500 Lounge) had its previous belt, waterpump & tensioner replaced at 55,000 kms, and I bought it in 2016 with 62,000kms on the odo.
I've recently replaced same at 141,000 kms, with none of the parts appearing to have requiring replacement (I was doing it due to it being over 6 years and almost 90,000kms since the last replacement).

 

[varesecrazy]

My 2018 is now due on age..and approaching miles

Not an expensive part.. the consideration being:

What else to I change?

Coolant..Yes

Waterpump..maybe

Tensioner .. Probably


Not sure if any component specs have changed over that 10 years of the 500/312..?

 

[vexorg]

Waterpump, both on risk of failng and hassle of doing it again if it does go.

The belt on our 500 was coming up to 7 years when I done it, it looked fine, less than 40k miles though. And the belt on my citroen by the book is 10 years or 150k miles, again, done that at just before 9 and a half years, belt looked nearly as good as the new one. roller bearing all felt good too.

It does seem to be very random on belt failures, no seen anyone with a 500 belt failure on here.

 

[jrkitching]

no seen anyone with a 500 belt failure on here.

I don't recall ever having seen one on a petrol 500.

Plenty of broken chains on the diesel, and countless cases of poor running after belt changes on the petrol.

I'd still recommend changing the belt at the interval specified in the service schedule.

 

[DaveMcT]

Timing belts rarely snap, but they do lose teeth which has the same effect on the engine. Coolant messes up timing belts as does engine oil. For what it costs, change belt, tensioner, water pump AND engine oil seal as this is the only way you can get to change it.

The biggest stress on the belt is at low speed and especially when the engine revs increase to move away from a stop. Stop-start probably aggravates the issue. If you do mostly short journeys 40,000 miles is enough. If you mostly do long runs, it will probably last twice as long