I asked this before, but it probably got lost as it was tagged onto another thread.

I recently purchased a '95 850 Turbo with 38,000 miles on it. Okay, the mileage says I shouldn't need to replace the timing belt for another 30K or so, but the car is 8 years old. I don't want to trash the engine by neglecting this fairly easy fix (I'd have the dealer do it). Question: do I go by actual mileage and apparent care the car has had (it is pristine inside and under the hood) or by its age?

Suzanne

I would replace it and the serp belt, too. And the hoses. All are cheap and possible for a DIY person. The cost of a broken timing belt is huge in comparison and not worth it. Also, buy the belts and hoses from IPD or the dealer or a place that goes through them so you don't get old stock.

If you look at the maintenance book, all the services have mileage AND time listings.

Time to change your timing belt.

You might wabt to check some of the other items also.
--
96 855R, 95 855,854, 90 744 Ti - 310,000 miles driven

My manual says replace at 70k miles or 84 months, so I would defintely do it. Like you said, it's a small relative cost.

I'm having my timing belt replaced today on my 95' 850 with 76k on it. Probably waited a little too long, but it didn't bite me in the butt. Like you I didn't want to do the job myself so I bought the parts through eeuroparts.com and am having the dealer install them. The total cost w/parts should be around $250 I'm told. $45 parts/$210 install and thats for both the timing and serp belt. I thought that was pretty reasonable