Preventive car maintenance... with a bit of luck

On Saturday, I took my daughter's car to the local mechanic to have an oil change. While waiting, his foreman asked him about whether to note down the mileage after changing timing belt of another car. All this time, I was under the mistaken impression (having heard from another mechanic in KL) that this car uses timing chain! I did not bother to check the car manual and what I shock it was to find that the recommended mileage is 60,000 km and the odomenter reads 82,400 km! It was 'ignorance is bliss' but could have turn out to be pretty expensive. I still can't get over how I got to know this by chance!

The spray-painter told me of his friend with a Kia Spectra which timing belt broke somewhere in Bidor and was quoted over Rm6,000 to repair all the damages to the engine. He managed to pay off the local mechanic for work done (Rm300) and had it repaired for over Rm3,000 which was still a big sum for not carrying out preventive maintenance.

This morning I was there at 9.00 am and left for lunch at 1.00 pm and the work done was timing and other belts dismantled, waiting for re-assembly. One of the three other belts was well worn (again lucky to have known) and all three were changed. The car was ready by 3.00 pm and the total costs was just over Rm300 (excluding oil and filter change the day before). Actually, much time was wasted when the mechanics did other more straight forward jobs while waiting for the parts. Then it was lunch time and the job was completed by the same person rather than someone else.

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