Heads up!!! I was driving my Aveo up to Vernon. I had to stop at the side of the road and was alarmed to hear that my coolant was boiling rapidly.
My car was overheating!!I had a cracked in my cam head. Although my temperature gauge hadn't even budged from the center of the gauge. About a month later, I was going up a hill and all of a sudden a loud noise came from my engine and the engine died. I had roadside assistance tow my vehicle to the dealership, where Preston's mechanics and service managers proceeded to tell me that the loud noise was my battery and starter!! And yet when my car died it was RUNNING, I was driving up a hill and after I had my 4 way flashers on for the tow truck.
BUT, I took my car elsewhere and my timing belt had snapped, due to the wear and damage from it overheating. And 4 out of 8 valve stems had been crushed when my timing belt snapped. My 4 exhaust valve stems. THE CAR HAD 80 000 KM on it!!!
UHHHHH...I'm sorry, but "starters and batteries" don't make a single noise when they go out... they just simply stop working. They also don't make your engine quit either. But then, you said that you heard the noise, and it died. THEN you said that it was running when they towed it...
Hmmmm...
Well sorry to hear about your bad Aveo I bought mine brand new in 2004 and right now it has arouund 60,000 miles and its fine I've never had any major issues with this car.
The Aveo owners manual recommends changing the timing belt at 60,000 miles and I will definately have mine changed before that. Its common in these new small cars for that. I also have a kia rio and I learned the hard way, the timing belt broke at approx 50,000 miles and cost me $800.00 to fix. The mechanic told me most of the small engines in the newer cheaper cars are all the same.
Well, mine broke too. I'm NOT a happy camper. It will cost more than the car is worth to fix it... over $2300.00 And I have a few years left to pay on it. I think it could be trade in time. This car might be great for a starter car for the kids or a "grocery getter", but if you need a car for distance and mileage, shop around and pay a little more.
And FYI...
IMPORTANT: A timing belt failure on vehicles equipped with interference engines presents a somewhat different scenario. This type of engine does not allow for clearance between a valve at its lowest point and a piston at its highest point. The critical link to ensure that these components do not collide is the timing belt. If an interference engine's timing belt fails, not only will the motorist be stranded, but additional damage to valves, pistons, cylinder head and cylinder walls can occur which can greatly escalate the cost of repair. It is essential to remember that when changing the timing belt, the timing belt system tensioner and pulleys must be examined to determine if they exhibit signs of wear or damage. If so, these components should immediately be replaced.
In case you didn't know GM has put out a TSB, technical service bulletin, recommending that the timing belt be changed at 30,000 miles. Whether they are also saying at each 30,000 mile interval, I'm not sure yet. I don't know why they are failing in the first place, if it is the belt themselves and they are only replacing with the same kind of belt then the answer would be yes, at each 30,000 mile interval.
That kind of frequency is something that was done with cars in the 1960-1970's, Fiat ring a bell. What the hell?
Gm covers the belt cost, but will not pay for the labor, another what the hell?
The tsb was a limited time deal to get samples to evaluate timing belt performance in these vehicles. See TSB# 06-06-01-021. It doesn't say "change it EVERY 30,000 miles." It is rec. that you replace them BETWEEN EVERY 40,000 and 60,000 miles, this IS NOT unique to the Aveo.
Chevy very clearly states that the timing belt must be replaced every 60,000 miles. The job is not that difficult, I just did one this weekend. I wrote up this web page to show how to do it: http://home.earthlink.net/~aveobot/id1.html
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