During Gary Bryan’s career as a mechanic and owner of Wheat Ridge Auto Services, Bryan has fixed countless cars with timing belt-related issues. Many customers also ask him for advice when buying a used car.
Every car has a different recommended time to replace its timing belt. Some cars don’t even have timing belts. Car owners should follow the car manufacturer’s suggestion on when to replace the car’s parts.
Some cars need a new timing belt at 60,000 miles and some at over 100,000 miles. There’s also a time factor to it too. Bryan owns a Toyota Tundra 2000 he bought new. Clocking 33,000 miles Bryan has never changed the timing belt, Bryan said.
Once the timing belt passes the recommended replacement mileage or time for replacement it can cause major damage and give no warning as to when it will break, Bryan said.
“You could be pulling out of your driveway, you could be starting, you could be driving down the road: If it’s going to break, it’s just going to break, no warning,” Bryan said. “I always tell people when they buy a used car, you need to know about the timing belt.”
Another factor to consider when being a used car is the make.
“It’s not where you buy a good car, it’s what car you buy,” Bryan said. “I have tunnel vision when I buy a car. I buy a Toyota; Honda’s a close second. You need to do homework on what cars work and what cars don’t work before you go out looking for a used car. A used car is a used car. You always have to take a chance on that.”
With used cars some future repairs you simply can’t predict. Bryan remembers inspecting a used car a customer was considering purchasing. The car’s brakes and suspension were clean and the truck drove well, with 150,000 miles clocked on it. The week after the customer purchased the truck the transmission went out.
“He came back and read me the Riot Act,” Bryan said. “There’s just certain cars that have bad parts that fail prematurely.”
Bryan’s red flags when buying used cars include salvaged title cars, cars that have been in floods and cars from the northeast. Cars from states like Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, New York and Massachusetts often have rusted parts.
Websites like CARFAX can be great tools, but even those reports don’t tell everything, Bryan said.
Wheat Ridge Auto Services, open Monday through Thursday 8 to 5, accepts customers on a first come first serve basis and is located at 9205 W 44th Ave. in Wheat Ridge.
