Am I the only one who misses the old days of timing belts instead of these new chain nightmares?

I spent 8 hours last Sunday wrestling with a failed timing chain on my buddy's 2015 Honda Civic here in Austin, and honestly I'd take a belt swap every 60k miles over this mess because chains stretch and rattle and cost triple the labor to fix, and I swear the old stuff was way simpler to deal with, so has anyone else had a chain job turn into a full weekend project?

2 comments

2 Comments

anthony_jackson12d ago

I watched a YouTube tear-down by that Car Wizard guy who said modern timing chains are basically designed to fail right after the warranty expires, which matches what I've seen on my own cars.

foster.oscar12d ago

That Car Wizard video got me thinking - he ever actually show the failure rates in writing or is he just guessing based on the three cars he tore down? I've seen enough stretched chains on Nissans to believe it, but I wonder how much of it is luck of the draw versus being an actual design flaw.