Bongo Fury

Hi all - be gentle with me as this technical stuff is all a bit of a mystery to me.
I'm led to believe that my Freda would like her timing belt changed either every 100 000km or every five years, whichever's soonest.
Well I've only clocked 23 000 km or so in the 3 years I've had her and she's still a long way short of 100k since the last belt replacement by the previous owner in Feb 2008. So my question is - how urgent is this job?
I'd appreciate any advice anyone can give me. Thanks
M

What engine?

It's a 2500 Diesel

it cost me £125 recently to have it changed at a garage near Braintree, worth it. I'd check out prices first.

Daz

Thanks Daz - but does it go with time or wear ? - like I said - I'm relatively low mileage but it's due if it's a 5 yearly thing.

its either or which ever comes first

Plenty of info on the net regarding timing belt replacement but not surprisingly, you wont find many reference to the Bongo. If you search for 2.5 TD Ford Ranger which uses a variant of the same engine, the recommendation is 60000 miles or 60 months whichever is sooner.

http://www.mytimingbelt.com/Results.aspx?ModelId=398

As 60 months = 5 years, it's due for renewal this month. While it doesn't mean your engine will explode into a thousand pieces if you don't do it straight away, you should certainly get it booked in soon. I've had a cambelt fail on a car once which which was doing about 10 mph and we got away lightly with 3 bent valves and a £500 bill. That cambelt was under 2 years / 5000 miles old.

Possibly something to do with the lifespan of rubber. If you take a look at a cars non driven wheels (the tyres on these usually last longest) once they get to about 5 years old the tyre sidewalls start to crack. I imagine its similar for a cam belt, if that cam belt has sat on the shelf of a garage for a couple of years this could be a contributing factor to early failure.

Tony

Had one go on an escort van years ago bent valves and a big bill, my advice is change it.

Many thanks to all - this is all very useful info .Thanks again.

Interestingly - Tony's service schedule only says 100000km and doesn't mention the 5yrs/60 months recommendation.
But I think I'll err on the side of caution.