Worth the hassel of changing it myself or just take it to a mechanic?
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Timing Belt
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If you have the experience, do it yourself, you'll save a lot of money. You can actually get the timing belt replacement kit from Mazdastuff.com.
I took mine to the mechanic, I'm not mechanically inclined enough to replace a timing belt yet. I'd do it myself if I had someone to take me through each step.Clint/1999 "Sport20"
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Same here. I can do simple things like adding a swaybar set, oil change, etc but I'm not about to open up the valve cover, risk messing my timing belt and cams.Clint/1999 "Sport20"
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Bah! Panama City sucks except for the beach during Spring Break and even that gets old after living here for 14 years. Nothing to do in this boring town. After I finish my AA degree at Gulf Coast Community College, I'm heading for Talahassee or Gainsville.Clint/1999 "Sport20"
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well, i changed my timing belt, but not cause i wanted to i put on a new harmonic stabilizer pully/crankshaft pully and the mazda dealership didn't give me the new bolts with it, and the stock ones were too long. needless to say they stuck in far enough to tear up my timing belt, so i had to replace it. i went to the dealership and told them what happened. they were decent enough to give me a timing belt for free, and the new bolts they should have given me before (i even asked about them, cause there was a difference in thickness between my original pully and the new one). even after i got it all back together with the new pully, belt, and bolts, my car still wouldn't crank so my buddy and i towed it to the dealership and they fixed it. they said the computer had to be reset after the timing got thrown off from the bolts tearing up the belt. and it wasn't just the simple disconnect the battery reset, either but while they were at it, they uninstalled everything i did, just to check it before resetting it, and reinstalled it, which is basically installing a new timing belt, and only charged me $100, rather than the usual $300. i was still pissed about it, cause IMO it was their mistake for not giving me the proper bolts, but it was also my fault for not checking the bolts properly.
with all that said, i'm not super mechanically inclined, but i can take stuff apart and put it back together. the timing belt isn't anything too hard to do, but it's a pain cause there isn't a lot of room on that side of the engine. more than many other compact cars, but still not a lot. i changed mine out in about 5 hours. the engine mount was the biggest pain for me, cause i didn't have a breaker bar or large enough sockets. after all that work i did, i think i would have rather just paid someone to change it for me. if you can find someone to do it for about $150 and you supply the belt, go for it. i'd even pay up to $200 for labor. beyond that, i'll do it myself
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Originally posted by PRican_Angelwhen should you actually change ur timing belt? i have 74k miles and counting ...Clint/1999 "Sport20"
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