I have heard lots about timing belts on Talon's and Eclipse's. Every story is bad, I have heard about so many people replacing them at 100,000 miles bacause they are affraid that the belt will slip and cause a valve to hit a pison. I own a 95 ESi with some light mods(iceman, Magnaflow Muffler). Does this apply to me, or more so the turbo Talon's and Eclipse's? If I was to take off the timing belt cover, what exactly am I looking for? I guess you could say that all the stories have me wondering if I can push my car hard, or if I have to drive it like an old lady. If anyone has some input or suggestions it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Rob Bain
95 Talon ESi
rob.bain@uleth.ca

Change your belt according to Manufacturers specification and you SHOULD have no problems. Read your book.

echo that. I believe the book says 65000 by the way, atleast for a manual, so do it at 65k! not 66000, not 65500 but 65000! The belts arent the best... :P

I'd say take your timimg belt cover off and inspect it closely for cracks and see if any part is worn at all. i got 71,000 on mine and no probs. some of the other guys have around 100,000 on their. It all depends what condition it's in. Then again it may look fine and then snap! I'm gonna get mine replaced when I get my headgasket replaced.

Chris
Project RS
http://klipzracer.homestead.com/index.html
"Life is short, rev hard!"
chrisdishmon@hotmail.com

yeah you can usually inspect it pretty easily if you are willing to spend some time and do it, just take a look at it.. If there are no cracks, splits, etc then you're probably fine but another thing to think about is after so long the belt will get looser and the car will not perform as well. Even if the belt looks ok, its still not a bad idea to replace it at 60k or 65k like mitsubishi says. I got about 5000 miles to go and I'll be doing mine wether it looks good or not.... (Sure glad I only got 55000 on my 95 RS though!) :)

Josh
95 Eclipse RS

http://www.mitsubishiracing.4t.com/