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just like this thread. LOL Question for you though, how do you think Nissan arrived at the 60,000
miles interval for a belt change? Why not 70,000? Or 80,000 miles? I'm sure they built in some cushion for whatever their testing showed was
the failing point of the belt. But how did they equate 60,000 miles to the
point when the belt should be replaced, knowing that every person's
driving habits would be a bit different? There must have been some kind of
time basis of the break down of materials involved in their calculations. If it is solely based on mileage, does that mean if some collector bought a
new Z in 1990 and simply stored it, then 50 years from now his grandson
got it and he could simply get in it and drive it for 60,000 miles before
changing the belt? Even if it might take him another 20 years to go 60,000
miles. Do you think that would be prudent to drive on a 70 year old belt? My guess is that Nissan wrote the interval period in the manual assuming
the owner of the car would drive it regularly, which at the time of the writing
equated to about 12,000 miles per year. Perhaps they may have also
found that the life span of the belt in the heated conditions found in an
engine compartment was x number of years. Using this data and the
typical mileage driven in a year, they arrived at the 60,000 miles mark as
their "safe" recommended change interval. Who's to say if Nissan
assumed that the typical mileage a car was driven was 4,000 instead of
12,000, that it may have shortened the interval period, or perhaps
lengthened it. (Maybe a belt spinning at 3,000 rpms for only 4,000 miles
per year lasts less time than one that spins for 12,000? Who knows?) So while the manual does state 60,000 miles, unless you know the exact
standards Nissan used to test their belt and arrive at the 60,000 mark, it is
not completely accurate advice to simply say "ONLY change your belt
when it has 60,000 miles on it." as other factors may be at work. You could accurately say, the FSM recommends changing the belt at
60,000 miles, but it can be changed at whatever interval will give you, the
driver peace of mind. Cheers,
Doug ps. I don't think anyone knowingly "lied" during this whole exchange of
messages. They may have provided information that wasn't technically
accurate, but I don't believe their intention was ever to intentionally deceive
someone, which is the definition of a lie.
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07:57:51 08/07/08
