Interference Engines

Is your car an interference engine? Some cars have engines where the pistons and valves occupy the same space but at different times of the four stroke cycle. However, what keeps these components apart in time is that rubber timing belt. Should that belt snap, which it is liable to do if used pasted the recommended time/mileage, then it's likely your engine will be destroyed.

Do yourself a favor. Do a search for your car along with interference engine and find out for sure. My son just bought an Eclipse and we soon discovered it was an interference engine. So we immediately changed the timing belt. If your car has one of these engines like my friend Faith and her beloved Lexus, when the belt goes so does the car if it's several years old and not practical to spend $5,000 on the new engine.

My Celica of course is not one of these. My belt snapped on my son when he was driving it. I had it towed home, I put another belt on the car and it runs great now. But find out about your car and replace the timing belt if it's old.