Well my '04 aveo just cost me 1600 dollars. The timing belt went and the values bent. Got a value job done and asked my mechanic when the maintenance on the belt was required. The owner's manual says 60,000. My car has 93,000.I did some research and California law requires timing belts to last up to 105,000 miles. It looks like GM went cheap and did not upgrade the belts. My car was checked the last time I bought it in for service and my mechanic said all my belts were fine. I am thinking about filing a class action lawsuit against GM. This could be a huge problem for aveo owners. I commute over 100 miles per day that's the reason for the high mileage.[:@]

Dose the owners manual specifically say timing belt? If not it is probably just the accessory belt/belts. You may want to call a dealership and ask them about the accessory belt and timing belt service intervals before you get to far into this.

First, I HIGHLY doubt that Kalifornia can demand from the manufacturers that timing belts last 105K. There are actually few carmakers around that will allow that kind of a service interval on the belt's rubber band.

Second, don't bother with the class action. It is CLEARLY marked in the books that this belt is required to be replaced at 60k. Since you ran 93k without touching it, the fault is yours and yours alone. You paid the penalty for failing to do your maintenance on time. Some lessons just plain ol' painful.

I just wanted to say, i dont have an aveo my my wife does, hers is also and 2004 ls, and hers went out at 53,006 miles, anyways long story short, i will now be replacing it every thirty, because the dealer did cover our damage, however next time the wont.

Well, it's starting to sound like GM did not address this issue when they bought out Daewoo. For the record folks, the Daewoo Lanos, the model sold before the Kalos (and now Aveo), had issues with early TB failure. The "fix" was to replace them every 50k, instead of 60k.

Lower control arm bushings cause creaking banging and tourqe steering in Aveo just replaced mine, required replacing lower control arms, each arm cost approx $100 from dealer and installation 45 minutes each side in my driveway first time, should be 20 miutes at dealer, then they will hit you with a $65 alighment. My bushings started to go bad at 13,000 miles replaced them at 17,000 miles. This could be serious safety issue if let to wear to long. Should be a safety recall by GM on all AVEO's can't believe they pretend not to know about it. Since the only source for the parts is GM Genuine I'd like to know how many control arms were sold or replaced under warranty. Timing belts are required to last 105,000 miles in California Emmission States ( California, New York, Mass. ) Don't know how they are geeting away with this.

Hi,
My timing belt just went out on my 2004 aveo too. i have 71,000 mile on it. it damaged my engine so now i have a piece of junk that's only three yrs old. did you file a class action suit? i don't know what to do. my extended warranty on my car didn't cover it because i didn't have the belt replaced at 60000. ridiculous!

erin

On a side note here, and not to disss the Aveo but it is the cheapest most basic car on the market...as with any basic car there are inherent problems, hell look at the Echo, it got so bad they changed te name to Yaris....not mkaing excuses for GM, but even Honda recommed changein their belts at 60,000 miles or 100,000 km (Canada)......its a guaranteed 1000 bill at 100km. Now I know you are all saying of 'premature' failure but dude (PHOTOG) you got 33,000 miles MORE then the recommended, so I say good car to get that far before it let go.....regular maintence will save you lots.

Add me to the list of Aveo losers. I just bought a Aveo for my son for college. The Aveo had 66,000 mi. and I bought it from Napa Nissan. They didnt have a manual so we ordered one. Unfortantly it did not show up in time. The belt blew so bad it totaled my sons engine.
Big loser in California

yeah, best not to go over 50k on the timing belts. seen a few of them come in with broken belts, may as well junk the car.

belt isnt too bad to replace, takes about an hour.

Let me add to this, there is seriously something going on. I have a 2004 Chevy Aveo I bought in June of that year new 157 miles on it. My timing belt first broke at approx54k mi. Had the timing belt broke,Chevy dealership wanted to charge me 500+ dolloars to replace it I ended up getting it changed at a Pep Boys, tht is where it was initially towed to. Now just about 5 days ago at approximately 82k mi the timing belt broke again! Chevy said that whomever put the new belt on mismounted the timing belt, now that I see this thread I'm pretty sure it was the timing belt itself. Now Chevy is blaming it on someone else and wants to charge me $1600.00 to replace the belt and the valves that were damaged when the belt broke. Would that be enough for a class action lawsuit?

If you did not replace the belt per the schedule in the owners manual or if you had work done at other then a dealer you can not sue GM. You could sue Pep Boys if they did the work.

The owners manual is available on line, it clearly says 60k miles replacment.

And since so much is at risk it would probably be a good idea to change the belt a little sooner, say every 50k miles?

After I did my timing belt I wrote up a web page with pictures:

http://home.earthlink.net/~aveobot/id1.html

got an 06 and was going to ask how hard it is to replace the TB.
Thanks sir for the write up and pictures.
So the adjustment for the tension of the belt is actually the water pump?
Strange things indeed.
Got 80K+ on it, better get to it soon.

80k miles? OMG! Many people would think the remaining lifespan of your engine could be measured with a stop watch...

Be very very careful. Drive as little as possible and then keep the revs low. Order the parts or find someone to do the work today!

Of course this is really an issue of money. If you got 2 or 3 thousand dollars laying around don't worry, that will fix things up after the timing belt breaks. But, right now, for a hundred or so in parts, you could replace the belt and be happy for another 50,000 miles.

very nice write-up robot. I read it from start to finish, sounds like you've done this a couple times

very good writeup robotB9, for sure.
wife uses car for delivery work, so have only weekends to work on it if need be.
she puts about 100+ miles easily every day and i only hope it will last until I can get to it on a nice day (no garage).
checked on parts through napaonline and will be about 165$, could not find water pump gasket but sure they have it available seperately.
So you HAVE to adjust the tension of the belt by turning the pump? Sounds strange to me, does the TSM or manual say that's how to do it? If so, ok but weird way to do it if you ask me. Only been wrenching on cars since i was 7 yrs old in 1960,
need to get the 65 442 back together, easier to work on.

Yes, the shaft of the water pump is not in the center of the housing so when you turn the housing the shaft (with sprocket) moves around and effects the belt tension. This is a bit weird but it does work. This is an in-expensive design not often used. The only downside is that unless the o-ring seal between the pump and block is not replaced it could leak when ever the pump is moved.

The water pump gasket (actually an o-ring) is available from Partstrain.com:

http://www2.partstrain.com/store/?N=9862+1588+4294965133+5915

Only 95 cents without shipping. I got some Aveo parts from them, no problems, got exactly what I asked for.

First of all when it comes to an Aveo this vehical IS NOT GM, the car is mostly a Korean car and made by the manufacturer Daewoo, the engine thats specifically in the Aveo originally came from the Daewoo Lanos, and for anybody thats familiar with Daewoo products their famous for timing belt failures and problems in that field, but back to the Aveo, GM is having problems with the Timing Belts on the Aveo with failing either shortly after the warranty period of 60,000 miles or well before the warranty period is done in some cases as soon as 45,000 miles the timing belts are failing, the problem with the failure is that The E-tech 2 engine is a INTERFERENCE Engine and what that means is when the timing belt snaps the valves collide with the pistons and severe engine damage occurs, In my opinion with knowing all of this, the owners manual says that the timing belt be INSPECTED at 30,000 miles and REPLACED at 60,000 miles, however with this vehical and its history of failures well before the 60,000 mile mark, I feel it would make sense to replace the timing belt while you have the engine all apart at 30,000 miles during the belt inspection, so yes I know that sounds very odd and to some problably not necessary but I feel id rather replace the belt more often then required then to have the engine destroyed because I failed to do so, so bottom line here, if you have an Aveo Replace The Belt Every 30,000 Miles you wont ever have an issue then with bent valves or a damaged cylinder head, I got my Aveo with 53,000 miles on it and when I went to replace the timing belt, the belt had an 1/8 inch crack starting to go across it not to mention 8 teeth were completly missing from the belt and were laying at the bottom of the timing cover when I took it all apart, so mine WILL be getting replaced every 30,000 miles because mine wouldnt have ever made it to 60,000 with 8 teeth missing and a small crack starting to go across the belt!

Just came from garage the timing belt jumped? on my Aveo5 2004, and broke I was stopped at a light at the time so I didnt expect engine damage to the pistons is it. It starts but doesnt stay running, and has a slight grind after several minutes does this mean its done for. It actually sounds like the idle is too low. Is this possible and should there be a louder or banging noise of some kind to be not saved.

There is no shortcut here. Someone must remove the timing belt cover and put things right again.

At the minimum the timing must be reset, at max the engine rebuilt.

No way to tell!

Yeah, I figured that in order to get to the next decision a new timing belt had to be put on. It got done and I was told it wouldnt start or stay going and it ran rough making noises.
I just went back to the garage to get a couple things from my car and while there I asked them to try to start the car for me so I could hear how it sounded. Low and behold a car that I was told wouldn't start and had engine damage ran... it wanted to cut out but no noises as I had been told it was making. I asked about this and the guy said he wasn't sure who said that to me (he wasnt the mechanic who had done the work he was off). I spoke to the shop manager and said I didnt hear any noises, yes it not staying running at first but in neutral will idle. I questioned about a compression test to see what cylinders is it are not seating correctly. They would not do a compression test as they had already come to the conclusion the engine is damaged and needed to be replaced. I asked about the car running rough, they said when they took it out for a test drive.... this is the car that wouldnt start now runs rough in low gear. I asked to be in the car when they pulled it out of the shop. It was like diving an automatic like it was a standard, start in neutral and gas brake to keep the rev up. It ran, no noises keeping it going from a start stop or vice versa only problem. I paid 400 $ for the job on the timing belt and did drive it home and took it to another mechanic. Car drove at 70KM-hour no issues. Only the start stop.

Whatever it turns out. ask your twenty questions and don't feel bad doing it. Im tired and this was the last pre christmas activity I wanted to do but, it could be worse I could still be at the other garage.

PS. I am a woman and I know enough about cars to know I was geting the run around. We'll see how it turns out but, a new head may be in the future for this car, but I can't see it being a new engine... will see.

Ok, I will give you my best guess as to what is going on:

When these timing belts break (or jump even a little) its almost certain that valves will hit the pistons. In the worst case a valve will be broken and will bounce around in the engine and destroy it.

But more often a valve will just get bent a little. The engine (after the timing belt is made right again) may still run.

Mechanics know this. They also know that the head has to come off and be rebuilt. Doing a compression test, while a cheap and simple test, would be a waste of time and money.

Replacing the timing belt on your car was a bit of a risk, it was possible that it would be ok after the new belt was put on. It was the only way to tell what is going on. And it was not a total waste of money, when the head is replace this "new" belt can be re-used.

Your car may run for quite a while as it is. It might not have the power it used to and it might not pass smog tests. At some point the head will have to be replaced or rebuilt. It would be best to have this work done sooner if you have the money. if not you could start saving money for the job.

Not sure if you saw the page I did on replacing the timing belt, it really was a fun job: http://home.earthlink.net/~aveobot/id1.html

About where are you located?

Need a good and honest mechanic in West Frankfort Il., I live Cumming Ga. and my daughter is going to school there in Il. I bought two of these cars for my daughters and it has happened to both of them. The first one broke around 55000 miles. It was some what repaired by GM. The car never ran right after that, and with many arguments with the Stealership and Gm reps. to no avail I gave up. So any way I had the dealer replace the second car's belt before it broke. It also had around 55000 miles on it. Last Saturday morning my daughter calls, was on her way to work and had just got on the interstate when the belt broke and the car only has 92000 mile on it. Not even 40000 miles. :mad: I do belive I've had enough of Goverment Motors.

If the timing belt broke its a sure bet that one of more of the valves is now bent and not sealing properly.

The head needs to be removed and if possible repaired. A good mechanic can dissassemble the head and find the bad valves.

These days it would be more common to just swap the head with a rebuilt one:

http://www.americancylinderheads.com/cylinder_head-GM-1.6-liter-_-valve-L4-NA-side-Gas-_-AC186C2.html

Good news. Thats if you don't mind finding out someone was trying to at worst defraud you at best is incompetent at the extreme.

You know that timing belt I've been writing about....

I had asked for a compression test they refused, I found that when I asked to have it started the car sounded fine... but it was as if the idle was too low, I'm old enough to remember timing lights.

I Just got it back from another guy who found out the timing belt (that had been installed by the friendly neighbourhood Canadian Garage in South Whitby, Ontario Canada) was installed incorrectly. He did a compression test no signs of damage, it runs the same as it did before the belt went. The guy who fixed it only sat in it 2 minutes, started it and let it run before he said it sounds like the timing belt was installed incorrectly.

I am trying to get past my anger at being almost taken for another $2000.00 (on top of the $400 I paid for them to do the timing belt the first time) and just before Christmas.

I had been towed to that garage, and they must have thought they had me. Thank God I know a thing or two about cars.
I am going to go back and ask for a full refund as The Consumer Protection Act, 2002 says that if work is not done properly and further work has to be done to correctly repair the problem the first repairer must refund you your money or redo the job at no cost to you (if you are in this case dumb enough to go back to the same guy who wasn't honest or smart enough to do it right the first time.)

I will let you know if they are compliant, if not I will raise hell. These kind of behaviour is not only lacking in ethics but shows no integrity for how the company operates.

To all you good mechanics out there, your needed and appreciated more than you can imagine, keep it up. For the rest shame on you.

First of all you are very lucky, a broken timing belt almost always bends a valve!

Second, you are now sure that the belt and the timing marks are all lined up correctly AND that now the compression is acceptable? In a way this makes sense: if the belt is off even just one tooth on one sprocket the engine will not be right. After you have done enough timing belts (I have done like 15) its very obvious to look at the marks and know if they are lined up right.

There is never a good time to get ripped off with car repairs. I am not sure if you got caught by an evil mechanic or an incompetent mechanic, not that it makes a difference to your check book! Certainly do what you can to recover your money.

One last thing: It seems like there are two problems with replacing belts on these engines. It is important that a high quality "brand name" belt be used. I like Gates or Continental. Just haveing a high quality belt can help preventing a broken belt. Next, its also important that "other" parts like idler pullies are replaced too. A new belt with an old worn pulley is just asking for trouble.

So as long as your engine has a good belt and the "other" parts have been replaced you should have no trouble reaching the 50,000 mile replacement mark.

Happened at 49K. I have a 7 year extended warranty. Filed a claim. Car was towed to warranty's "Authorized" repair shop. Mechanic says it's the timing belt. Warranty company says they want full tear down of engine (so if claim is denied I have to pay for this. If the mechanic diagnosed it w/o doing this then what is the purpose?). Mechanic is telling me that what usually happens is the warranty company will ask for maintenance documentation and ends up denying the claim. I don't have anything that says the timing belt was "checked" at 30k which I think is what the service schedule says. But the fact is it says "replace" at 60K. I don't want to end up paying for this engine "tear down". Is that the purpose of requesting it? To bully me into dropping the claim?

They do the tear down for two reasons:

1. To Bully you.

2. To make sure there is not any hidden damage.

You might want to suggest that it would be more resonable to remove just the cylinder head first. If there is no other damage (other then some bent valves) there could be no reason to go any further. Repairs can be made and it will be cheaper for everyone.

Our 2004 Aveo had its timing belt break at 56,125 miles. We have tried to get GM to fix it with no success. I have now heard of this problem from a number of people and in an effort to get the word out started http://aveosfail.com to work unite owners. Please pass on your story and follow the site on Twitter @aveosfail

Thanks!