Re:GTV6 Belt Change Interval

[George Graves <gmgraves@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Many will tell you forty thousand miles. In fact, that's the interval 
my factory shop manual recommends, but thirty thousand is probably not 
a bad idea. What you really need to look-out for and inspect thoroughly 
is the mechanical de-tensioner that most people have retrofitted to 
these engines. While this de-tensioner is less troublesome than the 
original factory-fit hydraulic devices (which tended to leak oil), it's 
aren't a great design either. Most of them have their springs fail long 
before the belt goes bad. It's something I check very often, and 
replace the moment I see the spring sticking out like that on a broken 
alarm clock. If you have to tear the front of the engine down far 
enough to replace the de-tensioner, you might as well replace the belt 
while you're there (after all, if you buy the Goodyear belt, it's only 
about US$20 or less than thirty for the OEM Italian belt). Also replace 
the water pump and fit a new de-tensioner if you let the belt go to 
30K-miles or more. Rule of thumb, though, is ALWAYS replace the 
tensioner when replacing the belt and always replace the belt if the 
tensioner fails prematurely.

George Graves
GTV-6


On Saturday, August 23, 2003, at 07:40 AM, alfa-digest wrote:


> Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2003 14:42:24 -0400 (EDT)
> From: "Mark Manley" <WarpOMatic@domain.elided>
> Subject: GTV6 Belt Change Interval
>
>      I was curious what the official recomended timing belt
> change interval was but I was surprised to find no recommendation
> in either the owners manual or shop manual. Maybe I overlooked it?
> I know GTV6.org recommends 30,000 mi. What got me looking
> was seeing somone a few digests ago mention 60,000 mi. Sounds
> way too long to me.
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