On New Years Eve 2015, my family and I were driving eastbound down the Ohio turnpike in my beloved 2002 Saturn L300. Everything was fine until, just past the Route 250 exit, the IP lit up like a ...

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 ...

The timing belt or chain sits at the center of an engine’s rhythm, quietly keeping pistons and valves in sync. When it fails, the damage can jump from a simple no-start to a destroyed engine in a ...

Q: My car has 65,000 miles on it and my mechanic says the timing belt should be replaced at 60,000 miles, especially since it has an interference engine. He says that if the belt breaks it will wreck ...

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 ...

What Does the Timing Belt or Timing Chain Do? On a conventional piston engine — which is found in virtually all modern passenger cars — the up-and-down motion of the pistons turn the crankshaft, and ...

If you have an older car from the 90s and below, odds are you have a timing belt. Some new car manufacturers, such as Audi, still use timing belts in their engine designs, but for longevity, many ...

If a timing belt breaks, one of two things are likely. Either the broken belt will allow the valves and pistons of the engine to collide, instantly turning the engine to scrap. (This is what happens ...

DEAR CAR TALK: 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, ...

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 ...

Zak is new to the CarBuzz team, working as a freelance content writer. When Zak isn't writing How To articles for CarBuzz he's working as a high school automotive technology instructor. Before ...