Getting to Know your Timing Belt

You are probably confused with the job of your Saab belts. How about reading this article, with notes from an online source, to get the know-how on one of those belts? – The timing belts.

Timing Belts are tightened rubber bands or sometimes chains used to proportion the turnings of the crankshafts and camshafts in internal combustion engines. In the inner part of some timing belts are teeth that will correspond to the gears of a specific engine design. Older vehicles have timing belts used only to synchronize camshafts and crankshafts. But with today’s modern engines, they are also often used to drive the water pumps.

The timing belts must keep the valves and the pistons working in an accurate order. At just the right time, each valve and piston combination must push down on the individual cams on a camshaft. It is like pedaling a bicycle, where the pedal must reach the top before you can push it down again. Your foot will either fall through or just break the pedal right off if you tried to push the pedal too soon. Timing belts work to prevent the pushing of the pistons and the valves on the camshaft before it has reached a full cycle.

Timing belts have a life-span of at least 60,000 miles, but some of the modern designs will last the whole life of the engine. They should be replaced in accordance to the manufacturer’s recommendations.

If the timing belt fails completely, the engine will just grind to a halt and the vehicle will totally not work. The valves and pistons can drive themselves into the camshaft, thereby causing them to just bend and brake. A very little warning is executed by a failing timing belt so it is wise that a timely timing belt replacement be made.

The professionals are responsible for replacing them because a lot of peripheral parts like the distributor and may be the water pump has to be removed for it to become accessible. New timing belts have to exactly match the old ones. The vehicle with broken timing belts has to be towed into the shop. And when the timing belt has been replaced, the mechanic has to synchronize the camshaft and the crankshaft with a special kind of strobe light. Repairing the broken timing belt could take several hours, but it’s all worth it.

The mechanic may also suggest that the water pump be changed at the same time with the timing belt. No need to worry because it will probably be worth your while in the long run. This is because just about all the work is done to replace the water pump when the timing belt is being changed; which means it will not require any additional labor as compared to repeating all that work and the mechanic would then charge again for the labor if the water pump has to fail at a later stage.