Dear SwissMaster,

Hope you're well. On the B230 engines a timing belt and/or tensioner failure means the car stops running. There is no damage to the engine: the pistons don't hit the valves (as is so on the engines in 960/S90/V90 series cars).

As timing belts aren't hugely costly or hard to replace, I'd suggest replacing the timing belt every 50K miles, and the tensioner every 100K miles. If, however, a timing belt is 10 years old, and the car has not yet gone 50K miles, I'd still replace the belt. Rubber deteriorates with time and heat.

The costs - in time and money - are small. The benefits are big.

The varying opinions expressed by Volvo in terms of timing belt life should not surprise. Volvo has repeatedly extended the working life of SRS system components, e.g., airbags. Originally, these items had a 10-year working life. About five years ago, that was extended to 15 years. More recently, Volvo holds that SRS components should last "the life of the car".

From the few collisions reported by Brickboard members, it seems that SRS system components indeed continue to work properly.

Hope this helps.

Yours faithfully,

Spook