When and Where to Change Timing Belt + Cost

[Capri to ST]

The manual recommends changing the timing belt at 150,000 miles, no mention is made of time. I found a European service schedule on Ford ETIS which recommended changing it at 125,000 miles or 10 years as shown here-
Camshaft drive belt Every 125 000 miles/10 years - Renew (LTS 21 304 9)

It has been pretty well-established on here that this is an interference engine, so if you break the timing belt you can seriously damage or destroy it, so the mileage is way too long for people like me that are only driving the car 3000-5000 miles a year. If you take the mileage recommendation from the US manual literally, that would be 30 to 50 years! So for me I'm obviously going to do it sooner, I was thinking of doing it at 8 to 10 years. Some of the earlier model cars will be approaching 8 years old soon, I was just wondering if anybody else was thinking about doing it that soon.

As for where, what I'm getting at is do you guys think it needs to be done in a Ford shop. I looked briefly at the service manual procedure and it did mention using some special tools to hold things in place while it's being done, as seen here-
Timing Belt
Removal

NOTE: Do not loosen or remove the crankshaft pulley bolt without first installing the special tools.

The question for me then becomes can a competent independent shop that probably doesn't have the specialized Ford tools do it safely?

If anyone has already had their timing belt changed, I would love to know where you had that done and roughly how much it cost. Thanks in advance.

 

[M-Sport fan]

^^^+ 1,000!

 

[Capri to ST]

^^^+ 1,000!

So when are you planning to do your timing belt?

 

[SerialBrain2]

i would after 12 years or 150,000 miles. those belts last a long time. And Im a over maintenance type personality. The tool needed comes with the kit you purchase.

 

[M-Sport fan]

I only have ~25K miles in ~3.5 years time on mine.

My mileage this year is going to be even lower yet, since they just cancelled all of the ARA Rallies I was planning on volunteering at/attending.

I basically just wanted to know as well, since I was thinking that the factory mileage rec was a bit too much, given the environment it operates in (yeah, despite how 'indestructibly well built' it may be), and how much stress we put on these power plants if we 'drive 'em like we stole 'em' to mitigate any carbon buildup, stave off LSPI, and just enjoy them.

 

[SerialBrain2]

after all its your dough, if it helps you sleep better change it earlier.

 

[HardBoiledEgg]

I'll be doing mine at 150k. But only three years old


Same time I'll do the water pump, serpentine belt and tensioner.

 

[FiST to death]

Our 2014 is at 144k, I'll pull it apart and do it in a few months when I'm sure everything else I'm doing now (clutch, flywheel, slave cylinder, intake, RMM, etc) is all properly sorted and it will be winter, so it can live in the garage while I deal with it. The clutch is only getting done in this oppressive July heat because it was about to give up the ghost entirely.

 

[FiST to death]

After checking some videos, I may do it sooner while I'm waiting for other parts to arrive anyway- by the look of it I can pick up the tool kit, belt/pump/tensioner kit, and a serpentine belt for $167 on Amazon and do it in an hour or two since a bunch of stuff is already off..

 

[Dr.Prutteklutt]

After checking some videos, I may do it sooner while I'm waiting for other parts to arrive anyway- by the look of it I can pick up the tool kit, belt/pump/tensioner kit, and a serpentine belt for $167 on Amazon and do it in an hour or two since a bunch of stuff is already off..

Any Updates on this?

 

[FiST to death]

Any Updates on this?

Heya! I actually ended up swapping in a complete 2015 22k mile engine and transmission assembly, so I didn't change the belt at all.

 

[Dr.Prutteklutt]

Heya! I actually ended up swapping in a complete 2015 22k mile engine and transmission assembly, so I didn't change the belt at all.

LoL, thats one way to change the Belt haha

 

[PunkST]

As long as the tools hold things in line, i dont need anything like forscan or some special shop electronics to re sync the sensors do i?

Im at 122k and about to start year 5 on the belt. If its as easy as my old svtf was the car my stick around longer. ( i kind of dread adressing timing on this car, but i dont want to have ford take a grand from me if i can get it done myself.

 

[Dr.Prutteklutt]

I was at the Dealer today to get an official Cost estimate, and its 680€ whats like 835 US Dollar.
Thats fair but i want to do it myself...

 

[Capri to ST]

Change your timing belt at 8 years-
That is what my friend who is a great mechanic with over 30 years of experience recommends. He said this is particularly important for a car like mine that doesn't get a lot of miles on it, 4,000 miles a year or so. In his opinion, the timing belt is bad when it is 10 years old, and he doesn't like risk, so would recommend doing it two years sooner to be on the safe side.
We talked about this today when I brought the car in for some service, and he mentioned that he had changed a water pump on a Fiesta ST, and had gotten the special Ford tool which is required to hold things in place while doing it.
I realize that the manual recommends changing it at 150,000 miles, and maybe I would do that if I was putting 20,000 miles a year on the car, but at 8 years is when I planned to do anyway, and he confirmed it.He's been working on my cars for over 20 years, and is actually the first person that told me how great the Fiesta ST was, and I trust him completely. Everybody can make their own decision about how long they want to wait before changing it, but just remember, this is an interference engine which means if you break a timing belt you basically destroy your engine.

 

[D1JL]

@Capri to ST, I have the Ford Rotunda tools for sale, listed in Classified.

 

[HardBoiledEgg]

My 2017 got it done at 150k and it looked good. Easily had 30k more

 

[System_Error_117]

Reviving an old thread here... but I'm about to dive into my timing belt as well. Has anyone considered removing the head and having it wallnut blasted or some other cleaning done while the front of the engine is already torn apart? I run a catch can but I know carbon is a killer for a lot of direct injection motors, and 150k seems like a good amount of miles for carbon to have built up?

 

[woodford86]

Also jumping on this old thread... I'm going to be replacing the radiator and FMIC sometime this summer. Is doing the timing belt easy at that point since the front end will be mostly torn apart? I don't mind getting the dealership to do it, but if its staring me in the face at that point I might as well save some bucks and learn a new task while I'm at it.

 

[rallytaff]

I'm coming up on 106,000 and 9yrs. Might get it down next year when I return from the UK. That should be around 110,000. The dealership stated that they can't give me a quote until they have the car on the lift and take off the parts and see what needs replacing! That doesn't make sense.