Re: Timing belt broke after 50k miles?!

"Steve B." <none@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message

>  The ridges can be cracked and the belt still be good.
> If any of the ridges come off or you see wear anywhere else on the
> belt it needs to go.  Usually a tensioner will make noise before it
> fails but not always.

We had an idler fail on a Buick 3800 application a couple of years ago.
Absolutely quiet until the failure, and of course it ate the belt. 
Luckily, 
wife
and I were only a couple of miles to the next town where we could get it 
changed.

Hardest part was trying to exit the motorway and make the turns to get to 
the
garage with no power steering.

In this case, the idler was also part of an aluminum casting which served 
some
other purpose (dont remember now what) and was not serviceable as a
separate
part.

I looked at your Haynes link, and even though it says it is acceptable, I 
wouldnt
feel very comfortable going on the road with a belt that looked like that.