hey people i have a few questions concerning maintenance on my 99 accord sedan automatic...

honestly, how often should i really change the oil, and does it matter if i switched from synthetic to regular motor oil

next, about the timing belt and water pump, i heard alot of things about if u dont change it at around 120k the car will start messing up on you, well when i purchased the car the seller didnt remember if he did it or not and now the mileage is at around 137k and so far no problems with the car overheating, should i be concerned only when it starts to overheat and what is the worst thing that can happen if dont change the timing belt

And then if possible i would like a breakdown of all the components of the car that require routine maintenance and how often, and what other components require maintenance but not as often like shocks maybe

Only reason im asking all this is because im not really car saavy and all but with money getting tighter i cant really afford to just send my car off for regular maintenance nemore so if u guys can help me out it would be really appreciated

 

Owner's manual has a list of all the scheduled maintenance.

I used to have a 98 and changed engine oil about every 5k. Transmission oil about every 25k or 30k.

Timing belt won't give you ANY problems until the day it breaks. Then your pistons hit the valves & you'll be looking for a new engine.

There's a lot of routine maintenance that's easy to do yourself, but changing the timing belt is a rather big job.

 

thnx man, because i was told i could just leave the timing belt alone until my idle starts messing up or the belt just snaps off and the worst thing they me told could happen is the car would just turn off, is that true

 

That is not true. Your engine is an interference engine, so if the timing belt breaks, then you will likely have damaged valves and will have to remove the cylinder head and have it repaired. That will be way more expensive than having the timing belt and water pump replaced.

 

The keyword here is PREVENTATIVE maintennance, so with 137K on the car, it is past due to change the timing belt and the water pump TOGETHER...Spend a small amount now, or you will be paying a whole lot more than the car is worth to fix a grenaded top end of the motor.

 

Actually the owner's manual maintenance schedule says to change the timing belt and balancer belt at 105,000 miles, but only inspect the water pump.

 

Changing your oil and ATF are the two biggest things for extending your car's life. Change brake fluid every two years. Tune up according to the owner's manual. Coolant flushes, too. Do inspections on your car and find little problems before they turn into big ones.

 

Water pump is not officially scheduled, but it is driven by the timing belt. So when the waterpump fails, it means a whole timing-belt job all over again. Replacing the waterpump along with the timing belt is a very small amount of extra labor. So it's a very popular combination.

It comes down to whether you feel the waterpump will last ANOTHER 105k miles. You don't have to replace it, but at least you should consider it and make a conscious decision.

 

What he said about the water pump, if you had to pay to replace just the water pump 10k miles later you would be quite angry. Its not a expensive part, but very labor intensive to get it replaced.

 

I actually did exactly that with my 95 Integra. Changed the timing belt & the waterpump looked real good. It was about 20k miles later the waterpump began leaking.

I did both jobs myself, but it was another long day of work. Kicked myself for not changing the pump together with the belt, but I couldn't blame anyone but myself. I knew the risk when I made the decision.