Timing Belt: How many people actually know what a timing belt is or when it should be changed? Sure people know when their cars need oil changes or their tires need to be rotated. Wal-Mart usually reminds us by putting a sticker on the left side of our windshield. But who tells us when we need to change our timing belt? If we were smart we would look it up in our car manual. But many of us like me did not know that it had to be changed every 70,000 miles. Unfortunately I paid the price.
I tried to save money. I like many others believed that the belt would last forever like my grandpa told me. I am a female college student that doesn’t know much about cars. So I listened to my grandpa and totally brushed off the fact that my Toyota had over 140,000 miles on it and the belt had never been changed. My grandpa’s theory was to use it until it broke and then replace it.
Oil Leak: My 1993 Toyota Camry had a small oil leak. My grandpa told me to carry oil in my trunk and not worry about it. Several months later I was driving from Montana to California by myself for the first time. I was on my way home with no thoughts about breaking down in a little town called Madris, Oregon. My car would not start. By the grace of God I broke down in the parking lot of an auto parts store. They directed me to the local mechanic.
He later determined that my oil leak caused my timing belt to slip which could have been prevented. I had to pay nearly six hundred dollars to replace the timing belt and another three hundred to fix the oil leak. This was the only time that I ever thought a credit card was my savior. The moral of the story is don’t be cheap! Make sure that your vehicle is in proper working condition. Do not forget about the timing belt and don’t put off fixing small oil leaks because you could end up like I did
Tags: auto part, auto parts, auto parts store, auto repair, auto repairs, k and n, oil change, oil changes, oil leak, parts, r cars, timing belt, tires, vehicle, windshield