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Please keep in mind that changing the belt more frequently or based on time is just an opinion of yours. It is not the advice of the manual, which says that you change the belt based on miles (with the standard caveat that you can vary based on car usage). My post here is to refute what appears to be an outright lie: that the factory service manual says 60k miles or 5 years. This is not true. Read the manual: it says 60k miles. Period. All this talk of ozone and UV has nothing to do with what the service manual says. "Perform at kilometers or months indicated," refers to the parts of the table with an "X" that lines up with the months labeled in columns. The timing belt row obviously has no "X" marked in it, it has a miles recommendation instead. (Again, if you can't read the manual, you shouldn't be posting answers in Tech, whether you are "trying to help" or not. Just don't do it! You sure as hell shouldn't make stuff up and then [deliberately?] misinterpret the manual when you are called out on it.) Furthermore, this isn't "my bad advice", this is the Nissan Factory Service Manual. It would be interesting to know how many broken timing belts failed before 60k miles. All the ones I remember being posted here over the years happened when the 60k service was neglected. Finally, the belt is not a rubber band, it has fibers in it. The tensile strength of the belt comes from the fibers in it, not the rubber sheath. The replacement recommendation is necessary because you can't see damage to the fibers, which are both protected and hidden by the rubber. If the rubber were degrading, it would show cracks; most failed belts "look great" except for where they snapped. (If belts are cracked, they should be replaced, regardless of age...it damages the fibers.) Have a great day.
- John
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07:57:51 08/07/08
