It all takes us back to the question that won't go away: if the OP doesn't
change the belt now, when will he do it? Waiting for the seals leak is
certain to be too long since they should never leak. This car is too young
to die of that sort of considered neglect and should be worth about 20 times
the cost of having a shop change the timing belt.

wp51dos - I see nobody has said so directly in this thread, but you do
realize a failed timing belt is likely to do several thousand dollars
damage, yes?

Mike

"wp51dos" <wp51dos@gmail.com> wrote in news:1167518352.750613.280120@
48g2000cwx.googlegroups.com:

Silly boy. Can't tell ANYthing that way.

That's not smart.

Hopefully before the belt snaps.

thanks for input.

I pulled cover anyway and checked belt as thorughly as I could
including trying to pick teeth off of it.

I don't have access to impact wrench so I will wait with crossed
fingers until seals etc leak, then tackle job using old time tools.

Who knows car might be sold or stolen before then.

Missing teeth is the normal failure mode... even though people most
often say 'broken belt'

Erik

Yow! I changed a timing belt in a Volvo once (way overdue, but a
non-interference engine) and although it looked okay the teeth could be
picked off the belt with my thumbnail. I've personally never seen a broken
timing belt, but I've seen belts fail because teeth were missing. Every one
looked okay otherwise.

Mike

Just to echo that you cant always see if it needs checking- One car that
when I looked at the belt, it looked ok. Then I took it off anyway. I
found the "teeth" on the inside edge were GONE!

-Pete

What TeGGeR says - the belt must be replaced. It will probably look fine but
it is not to be trusted with the life of your engine. There is no reliable
visual indication of timing belt condition.

Mike

98 Civic DX.  I want to check timing belt.  Car has 60,000 miles.  I
checked online repair manual.  Looks like I need to remove valve cover
first then upper timing belt cover.  Is this correct ? Thank you