Our 2001 Subaru Forester (93,000 miles, we're the only owner) has been an excellent, essentially maintenance-free vehicle. Recently, when a front axle was replaced for a torn CV joint boot, the garage ...

Not every timing belt failure results in catastrophic engine damage, but it will bring your trip to a sudden halt and cause a major hassle you'd probably rather avoid - as well as the expense of a tow ...

Timing belts themselves are relatively inexpensive but can easily cause thousands of dollars of damage if they break while the engine is running. Engines come in two configurations: Interference and ...

Q: If the timing belt breaks in an interference engine, it will self-destruct. What advantage is gained by this design that outweighs the risk of engine damage if or when the belt fails? — R. Fischer ...

An interference engine is one in which the valves and the pistons operate within the same space inside the cylinder. The timing belt or chain regulates the movement of these internal engine parts so ...

Q: I had a 1991 Civic. At 105,000 miles, the timing belt broke while we were driving. I pulled off to the side of the road – the cold, dark, middle-of-nowhere, Indiana road – and just to make sure to ...

It really doesn’t matter how fast you’re driving when a timing chain or timing belt breaks. If the engine is an interference design, then this failure has possibly turned the rest of the engine to ...

Q: You recently wrote about a guy whose timing belt broke, and who tried to restart his car but whose valves survived only through sheer good luck. In 1957, I had a new Ford six-cylinder, standard ...

Justin Pritchard is a seasoned Sudbury, Ontario-based automotive journalist, producer, and technical writer. With a passion for cars and a talent for storytelling, he's established himself as a ...