Timing belt change

[lbullis]

The reason I am on this forum is that I own a towing company and recently impounded an abandoned vehicle. It is a 2002 P/T Cruiser. It appears that the timing belt failed and that the previous owner could not afford to repair it. The car was left with the keys in it and all personal items removed. The odometer shows 114,000 miles on it.

I used to work on FIAT's back in the 1970's. They were one of the first to use timing belts instead of chains. Back then, maximum belt life was about 60,000 miles. They only required about an hour of labor to replace the belt. So it looks like belts today last a lot longer but are far more expensive to replace.

[CREWZIN]

There's two answers to your question. Yes, the belts last a lot longer than years past, about 100,000 for the PT cruiser. The second part is not as easy to answer because all cars are different. The PT does take an experienced mechanic about 3-5 hours (my guess) to change the belt plus other things that should be changed at the same time ex: water pump, serpentine belt, alternator belt and tensioner. Somewhere in the neighborhood of $300 for parts plus labor. The going price at a dealer is around $1000 for the whole job. Other cars aren't that hard and take less time to change everything out.