My mother in law has a 95 RVR 1.8litre, auto with 104km's on the clock. The car has been treated well all of its life but she has only owned it for the last 10kms and 4 years. She doesen't remember if the prevoius owner changed the cambelt (I doubt it) but it was a Jap import and many people change at 80kms in NZ. As you might guess she doesn't drive it much and she doesn't have allot of $$ to spend so I do all the maintenance.

Which leads me to my question. If the cam belt breaks will it destroy the engine (interferance or not)? If this is an interferance engine how difficult and expensive is it to change the cambelt? What other parts are recommended to change if you do the belt. As you might guess I'm inclined to leave it alone and change when I have to. It very rarely leaves town and I have a car trailer to borrow if it dies. At the moment it is only worth about $3k so to sink any money into it is dubious.

Comments & suggestions please.

Jim

I don't know about the 1.8 being interferance. My experience has been with the 4g64 2.4L. If the car is being driven normally I wouldn't worry about the cam belt. If you decide to change it, kits are offered for about 200.00 US on Ebay that include cam belt, balance shaft belt if you need it, tensioners and water pump. It's not hard to do but it is labor intensive. The hardest part will probably be trying to get the crank bolt loose. You'll need a good impact gun for that. Align timing marks for TDC on Cylinder #1 and recheck before you button everything up. You should have no problems. If the car's not being raced or abused the cam belt shouldn't be a concern. Hope this helps!

Thanks for the reply it is of some help. Don't think Nana will be racing anytime soon even though she does have a lead foot at times. I have done cambelts before so I'm not to worried about the labour just the cost of parts. I don't mind taking the risk of having it break as long as the valves do not interfer with the pistons. Do you know if this can happen when driven in a normal fashion.

Jim

I don't have any RVR info but it should be similar to the expo. The 1.8 motor doesn't have a balance shaft and is not supposed to be an interferance motor either. You should be okay if the belt fails. "Should" isn't very comforting I know.

If you do for any reason have to change the timing belt please change the water pump as well. A few years ago I had the timing belt changed by a "reputable" Mitsi agent who only changed the belt. A week or so later the water pump started to make a grinding noise and had to be replaced. Fortunately I managed to find instructions on Google who provided info on the timing belt kits, which includes a water pump, and when the agent was shown this he had to replace the pump at no extra charge. What these guys were doing was breaking the kits up and selling the pieces individually. Unfortunately I'm not a mechanic so rely on sites like this with more knowledgeable people when confronting agents whose first goal seems to be how to rip you off.

Sounds like the Mits dealers in NZ are no better than most of the Mits dealer here in the states but what do you expect from the company who brought us Pearl Harbor. Kind of a shame because I really like their cars.

PS My 94 Galant ES with the 2.4 SOHC 4G64 engine broke a timing belt at 85+ mph. The engine was fine once I put a new timing belt on. It is my daily driver and still going strong at 232K miles. jjj

I live in a small town and find that all the mechanics here a very consciencious. It does pay to do your homework before hand so I can discuss it with them. If I can find out the info it saves me and my mechanic alot of time and energy chasing answers. Using these forums is a real blessing as we have very knowledgable people who can help from all over the world. I mostly try and do all my maintenance myself but if it gets too much for me or I have other comittments I bring into the shop. Thanks for your help.

Jim