Timing Belt

MonkeyWrench

I am buying a 04 BMW 318ci Coupe off a friend of mine in a couple of weeks. The car looks in good shape and has only had one owner over the last 4 years. The mileage on the car is around 52K. I have heard from a couple of people that I may need to get the timing belt changed in the next year or so when my mileage approaches the 60K mark, is this true? I have heard cars needing a new timing belt after 50 or 60K but I assume that it varies with the make of car?

Darragh29

MonkeyWrench wrote: »

I am buying a 04 BMW 318ci Coupe off a friend of mine in a couple of weeks. The car looks in good shape and has only had one owner over the last 4 years. The mileage on the car is around 52K. I have heard from a couple of people that I may need to get the timing belt changed in the next year or so when my mileage approaches the 60K mark, is this true? I have heard cars needing a new timing belt after 50 or 60K but I assume that it varies with the make of car?

Your car doesn't have a timing belt, it has a timing chain, which doesn't have a scheduled replacement interval.

bazz26

Depends on the make and model of car, some use timing belts, some use timing chains. A timing belt has a shorter life span than a timing chain and needs to be changed at shorter intervals.

Afaik the 2.0 litre 4 cylinder engine in the 04 318ci is chain driven which means it should not need changing until well over 100k miles or whenever BMW recommend.

A quick phone call to a BMW dealer will confirm this.

stretchaq

timing chain in a BMW will never have to be replaced only the tensioners may have to be replaced