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When to Replace a Timing Belt
Replace a timing belt on the kilometer limit and the age limit in your owner's manual, whichever comes first. There is no single interval for every car.
A timing belt connects the crankshaft to the camshaft so the valves open when the pistons are out of the way. It is a wear part. The replacement point is printed in the maintenance schedule as a distance, an age, or both.
Whichever limit comes first is the one that counts. A car that sits in a garage still ages the belt. A car that does the kilometers early should not wait for the year. Copy the figures from your book. A round number from a forum is not your interval.
Some engines use a chain instead of a belt. A chain is not maintenance-free on every car. The same rule applies: the manual names the part and any inspection or replacement it wants. If you are unsure which you have, a workshop can tell you. Do not guess from the model name alone.
Why the timing belt is not a drive belt
The belt you can often see at the front of the engine, driving the alternator or the air conditioning, is a drive belt. It is a different part, on a different interval, and it fails differently. The comparison is in timing belt vs drive belt.
The timing belt is usually behind a cover. You do not judge it by a quick look at the accessory belt. Cracks you can see on the outer belt do not tell you the timing belt is fine, and a quiet engine does not mean the hidden belt has life left.
What a broken timing belt can do
On an interference engine, a snapped or jumped belt can let pistons and valves meet. That is engine damage, not a roadside belt swap. Not every engine is an interference design. The manual or a qualified shop is who identifies yours.
That risk is why the interval is a limit, not a suggestion to stretch until the belt looks bad. Many failures give no useful warning on the dash.
What shops often replace with the belt
The tensioner, idlers, and often the water pump are commonly replaced in the same job because the labor to open the cover is the large part of the bill. That is common practice, not a rule that every engine needs a new pump. Ask what the kit includes and what your manual lists.
The invoice should name the belt, the parts, the date, and the kilometers. If a pump or tensioner was declined, write declined. Do not record a kit you did not buy.
Put the next due mark on that row, both kilometers and age if the book gives both. Routine car maintenance is the repeating list. The timing belt is the rare, expensive item on it.
What to keep in the log
One row: timing belt replacement, the date, the odometer, the cost, and the next limit you are following. Name the pump and tensioner if they were part of the same visit.
RPMBase stores that on the car maintenance tracker. It does not know your engine, and it will not invent the interval. The reminder only fires from the mark you set.
Keep the invoice. A buyer who asks about the belt wants the paper, not a memory of the year it might have been done. Service records when selling is the same idea for the rest of the history.