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In relation to Deadcat's broken cambelt thread I though I'd just ask..... Mine has 85000 on the clock and I don't have any history of when the last belt was changed. I figure it can't have possibly done 85000 on one belt, so it was probably changed at taround the 40-50000 mark and will go up to about 100,000. Am I right?

I had a look at it - it has a slight used leather look on the untoothed side, the teeth didn't look damaged, there are no frays or cracks apart from the miniscule ones that give it the leather look. It looks in my estimation about two thirds through it's life - old but not perished. Trouble is my regular guy (cheap) is away for about two months - hmmm... should I risk putting 2-3 thousand more miles on this belt?

if you are at all in doubt, get it changed. visually checking the wear is a job for an expert and even then thats only in an emergency situation.

its under a tenner for the part if you do it yourself, around the hundred quid mark if you find a decent garage to carry out this particular bastard of a task.

you're gonna have to have it done sometime, and then a fixed period after that... is it worth knackering the engine for that time to be now rather than in 5000 miles?

It costs about £8 to do and the hardest part of the job is removing the alternator pulley (4 6mm allen key bolts) these are threadlocked on but theyre not tightened that much. As long as theyre not rusty they should undo and come off pretty easily. The timing belts are changed as part of the service at 60K. Deadcat's might have been changed but there is the (remote) possibility that his water pump siezed up causing his belt to snap so its a good idea to change this at the same time (theyre only about £25)