Change Timing Belt (2008 Elantra) based on age/time or can its state really be inspected?
I have a 2008 Hyundai Elantra GLS (5 speed manual)- the first and only car I purchased new. Despite it being 18 years old, it has just over 95,000 km - as I drive very little (disabled, not working, cyclist). Also I park underground in pretty moderated conditions. Car is in exceptional shape.
Because I am still not at the Maintenance Schedule's 144k km recommended mileage for a first replacement and time has gotten away from me during this pandemic, I only recently got to thinking about the timing belt again. Confusingly, the Maintenance Schedule says to replace the Timing belt at 6 years (144k km) and again at 10 years (240k km). If anyone knows why the first belt lasts 6 years but the second one only 4 years, I'd love to know.
When it was 8 years old in 2016 (70,000 km), I replaced: Timing, Alternator & A/C belts and the water pump.
Realizing that that Timing belt is 10 years old, I called CTC to book a Timing belt change. The Service Advisor said they could do an inspection to see if I needed the belt changed. In all my many years I have always understood that you cannot declare a Timing belt "good" by visual inspection. (You can declare one "bad" by looking at it - worn, cracked etc.).
Proceeded to call 2 different Hyundai shops to ask if one can determine the health of a Timing belt by visual inspection. They both said that I needed to bring it in for inspection before they could answer the question about whether an 'inspection' is appropriate for this. I gave up.
Finally tried an independent garage and he said that "because it's been replaced once already, NOW he could actually look at this one and determine its status". What?!
So my questions are:
- Am I nuts? Can you possibly tell me that you can simply inspect a Timing belt and determine that it doesn't need to be replaced? Let alone a 10 year old Timing Belt? I do believe that the exceedingly low mileage (only 25k km) and the fact that I do park it in protected conditions (no extreme heat etc) works in my favour but, seriously, is there anyone who would NOT recommend its replacement...no matter what it "looked like" on inspection?
- It made sense to me 10 year ago that "while we've got it apart, you may as well replace the other belts and the water pump". The Hyundai people refused to comment on this sort of course of action. I'd appreciate your opinions on this, also.
Thank you.