I checked out the car and drove it. Runs great, everything looks awesome. Had the oil leak and computer fixed, and it also seems that the timing belt is real new. Is the timing belt located on the left side of the engine? If so that belt looks new/good condition. Even though this is not the car, is the timing belt located on the left of this picture? http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/f...d/IMG_2250.jpg A few inches to the left of the red oil/thing. Otherwise my question is, what do I do next? The seller said everything has just been changed oil etc etc, obviously ill have my mechanic look at it but otherwise, do I need anything? should i put a new air filter in the car? Should i put a cleaner into the tank to just clean it out? What do I need to do to insure a great start is what I am really asking. Thank you and I appreciate all the help this forum has givin me.

 

more than likely the thing you are asking about is your serpentine belt. Timing belts are most always covered by something thats relatively difficult to get off, so yeah id say its a serpentine belt..

Just ask your mechanic though, he will have a better idea of what's clean, and what needs replacing in order to keep it running strong. Typically, the things that dont need to be frequently replaced (gas, oil, oil filter), but eventually need to are o2 sensors, airflow sensors, and air filters... thats al i can think of now...

The timing belt is a touchy thing. As i said before they are typically hard to get to, which is why labor on replacing them is so expensive, although it is a very crucial part to your car so unless you have a relatively extensive background in that kind of thing, pay extra and get it done right. You can do a visual inpection if you can get to it, mainly look for cracking in the belt, and alot of play (pushing in a side and it giving more than 1 inch). Even then if it seems fine and your still worrying, just get it changed out, its NOT one of those things that is a "minor repair" if broken.

 

First of all congrats on your new car.

That is not the timing belt, thats the serpentine belt. The timing belt is under the plastic cover just right of the coolant bottle (the white one with the green cap). Carefully remove the cover and check for cracks in the timing belt visually. To have a reference on how bad cracks look like, check out the pictures in the sticky thread by Tech - Timing Belt Precautions - its the first thread in this forum. There are several threads on timing belt; you can find real useful info.

My timing belt's cracks look similar (81K miles) to those posted by Tech, so I'm working on replacing it. If you decide to change it yourself or somebody other than dealer you should be able to save $80 - $120 on parts if you buy them online. I would change the timing belt even though it looks good.

I put aFram filter in it. My mileage just shot from 17.4 to 22.0 (city-highway mix)after I changed the dirty airfilter.

I used a fuel system clear too (the chevron techron thing), I didn't see any difference in the mileage, engine sound, engine smoothness etc etc. But I use it once every 2000 miles anyway.

Use only premium grade gas - I noticed engine knocking for anything less than premium.

Anything else?

 

Awesome, sounds cool. What will happen if I use regular gas? Will it really hurt the car in the long run or is it not that damaging?

 

I read an article somewhere online, it concludes that if you are supposed to use premium, you are better off using premium, coz that will help keep your engine in good health in the long run. The article says that the money you save by using a lower grade fuel will be compensated by hurting the engine. But I'm not sure how much it'll hurt. I'll try to find the article and post it here.

 

Regular gas is typically less refined, which equates to more crap in it that is likely to stick to parts in your system and gunk it up, along with many other bad things...

For fuel additive (cleaner) ive used Lucas Oil fuel treatment for all my cars, cant really say it has any immediate results, which shouldnt really be expected, but the mileage and overall performance on all the cars its used on has been pretty constant, along with no problems reguarding the fuel delivery system.

 

regular gas is not less refined. An oversimplified answer is it just burns faster.If you use to low of an octane the computer will retard the timing toavoid detonation. This will cut power. You need the minimum amount ofoctane to avoid detontation and that's it. Anymore and you lose power because the air/fuel mix is burning to slow.

 

So whats that mean team? is 89 resonable?

 

You could definitely try 89, especially if you don't do alot of aggressive driving. If you try a lower octane and hear excessive pinging or notice power loss (computer retarding timing), then go back up. I run 89 in my 2.9 (non turbo) just fine, but it calls for premium.

 

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The car has 63 thousand on it. You think it would be a bad idea to just have the timing belt replaced anyway? What else should be replaced at the same time as the belt? I do cross country driving so, yea. My other question, is even tho the computer software is upgraded does that mean they switched the ****ty ETM out with the good one or no? Will it even matter now that the ETM software is upgraded? thanks!