Timing belt vs Timing chain

IMO this is down to the make/year/model more than the mechanism, and the individual car must be considered of course.

2007 Mercedes C230K has a known timing chain issue.
Ask me how I know.
Thing is I only learned that when we started having trouble with the car. A properly timed search could have saved me R20k, it is very well documented online.
Just do your research. Find actual forums for the cars you are considering and talk to people about it.
 
Best would be an old American V8 with pushrods, but not easy to find.

Rather ask your local service agent what the cost of replacement would be on the specific model. Some costs more than others to do.
A standard 4 pot engine would be way cheaper to do than something like a V6 with variable valve timing.
 
wetkit said:
Best would be an old American V8 with pushrods, but not easy to find.

Rather ask your local service agent what the cost of replacement would be on the specific model. Some costs more than others to do.
A standard 4 pot engine would be way cheaper to do than something like a V6 with variable valve timing.
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Or timing gears
 
airborne said:
Japanese engines with timing chain = win
European or USA engines with timing chain = :-/

If an engine is well designed then a timing chain is preferably and with regular oil changes will last the life of the vehicle and hence be a lot more cost effective and hassle free than an engine with a timing belt that needs regular and often costly replacement.
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When I used to do serious kilometres, it seem like I was changing my timing belt every year on my Opel Astra G. I must have change it at least 4/5 times between August 2007 and February 2013. Since then I decided all my cars would be timing chains.

Oh, and it is one of those things that you should change. My first car, I did not. Learnt an expensive lesson on that car.
 
rh1 said:
When I used to do serious kilometres, it seem like I was changing my timing belt every year on my Opel Astra G. I must have change it at least 4/5 times between August 2007 and February 2013. Since then I decided all my cars would be timing chains.

Oh, and it is one of those things that you should change. My first car, I did not. Learnt an expensive lesson on that car.
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Why were you changing it this frequently?
 
TheChamp said:
Why were you changing it this frequently?
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Astra G timing belts were every 75000km. Which I did very quickly, partly to living in a township on one side of Cape Town and driving to work on the other side of Cape Town. Not to mentioned "business" required travelling.
 
rh1 said:
When I used to do serious kilometres, it seem like I was changing my timing belt every year on my Opel Astra G. I must have change it at least 4/5 times between August 2007 and February 2013. Since then I decided all my cars would be timing chains.

Oh, and it is one of those things that you should change. My first car, I did not. Learnt an expensive lesson on that car.
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I had two timing belts snap one year apart on my 1.8 Astra G. My current car has a timing chain but it wasn't something I was specifically looking for when I bought it.
 
YeLo said:
I was discouraged from buying a Ford Fiesta ST200 after learning that it had a timing belt and is an interference engine. Ford recommends that the belt is changed every 8 years but experts recommend you change it every 5 years just to be safe.

What really put me off was the price to do the timing belt service. After doing some research I established that it’s between R8K to R12K to do this service because it’s an engine out job, according to the service centres that I consulted.

I like the idea of keeping a car long term and for that reason I prefer cars with a timing chain since MOST of them don’t need as much maintenance as a belt does.

Timing chain + non-interference engine does it for me. Keen to hear your opinions on this.
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Fusek. You didn't buy one because you don't want to join the elite club.

Every car needs to have the belt/chain replaced. They all cost around the same.

You do not need to drop the engine to replace the belt, you might need to remove an auxiliary belt & tensioner and the water pump needs to be replaced too.

The full service, with the belt, water pump, oil etc will cost you R8067.14.

Your research failed you.
 
timing belt stick to the maintenance schedule of xxx km or xxx amount of years as per specific manufacturer and you should have no issues.

timing chain stick to the maintenance schedule of xxx km or xxx amount of years as per specific manufacturer and you should have no issues.
 
With some timing chain failures you will at least get a warning, like when the chain is stretched it gets noisier and noiser before it goes. I don't think you get any warnings with a belt.

This is also something I started checking recently before purchasing a car. I'd go with the chain.
 
In a perfect world all other things being identical and no other research being possible I would likely opt for the timing chain.

However, with research at your disposal you would do better to compare the track record of two specific engines to find which is more reliable regardless of the timing mechanism and make your choice based on that.

You get dodgy problematic engines on both sides.

Hand in hand with that would be the recommend service and maintenance schedule for both.
 
Many cars with timing chains don't have replacement interval. My i20's engine is specified for the life of the engine (claim). At service they told me they take a look at every service but they don't see a reason mine would need to be replaced. Much prefer it to when I had a car that had to have the belt replacement which is super expensive (and worry some because it is the thing that they f#ck up every now and then)

On the interference engine front, it is almost impossible for a modern engine to not be interference. Older and SOHC engines are typically non-interference because valve lift is relatively low. But modern engines are all high compression, high RPM, lots of lift on the valves (and some form of VVT). Some manufacturers like Opel, VW and so on used to sell their "modern" cars with engines from the 80s in SA (likely the Vivo is still sold with older engines). Not sure if they still do, but that would be a good sign you are still on one of those engines. Not even going to talk about push-rods, other than the fact that such a long linkage mechanism means you are limited on the RPM front, valve lift needs to be verified which is expensive and complex.
 
Problem is when a belt goes the damage generally isn’t major.

When a chain goes it tips everything else apart.
 
It's not so much on the mechanism I believe but rather on the reactive and preventative maintenance done on them. Granted some are more flawed than others, point of interest... the mk6 Golf GTI. That *hite of a car or whatever it is uses a flawed design timing chain with a tensioning mechanism that fails, at around 200k km the chain would've considerably stretched resulting in a catastrophic cam shaft failure that ko's the injectors if you're lucky.
 
rh1 said:
Astra G timing belts were every 75000km. Which I did very quickly, partly to living in a township on one side of Cape Town and driving to work on the other side of Cape Town. Not to mentioned "business" required travelling.
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Sure Bro, Who can i use around CT to Change Timing Chain for Sandero T900, Renault is asking for alot that i thought of selling the car.if you know a good Mechanic please hala.
 
Jewpacabra said:
With some timing chain failures you will at least get a warning, like when the chain is stretched it gets noisier and noiser before it goes. I don't think you get any warnings with a belt.

This is also something I started checking recently before purchasing a car. I'd go with the chain.
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Yea it's because of the slack. I need to Replace mine now eish.
 
Gallago said:
Sure Bro, Who can i use around CT to Change Timing Chain for Sandero T900, Renault is asking for alot that i thought of selling the car.if you know a good Mechanic please hala.
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At that time I was part of the Stealership Cult. One of the last ones I did was at Independent RMI accredited mechanic. Dont have his details.

I dont have the answer. Both my current cars have chain timing belts, I would probably try to do it myself with the help of a good friend that think doing stuff like that is fun.
 
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