asorum

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!

MorganVogt

Mine failed at 55,000 miles. I was told the problem wasn't the belt, but the plastic idler pulley attached to the engine block. Apparently most cars have metal ones which allows the timing belt to last longer. So far I'm up to $2,000 in damages, but they're still looking. All 16 of my valves broke, plus the pulley system has to be replaced. They can put 4 valves per cylinder, but they use a plastic part when metal would be much safer. Interesting how this works.

flip

I'm late in getting back to this site, one of my bad habits I guess.
Replaced the belt sometime after my post in March 09, believe it was April 09.
Car had OVER 100K on it by the time I got to it. Replaced belt, tensioner, alternator and other acc drive belts plus the electronic throttle pedal as the code reader said so, what the heck.
The belt looked rather good for so many miles, hardly had any cracks in it and appeared that it "could" last longer (have had belts on other cars look in worse shape and last quite a long while after).
Hardest part was getting the tensioner correctly tightened as seeing where the pointer is sposed to be at was difficult but with simple tools the job didn't take much time and wasn't really difficult to do.
ANY shop could do this job just as any backyard mechanic could do it.

I was surprised that our belt was in as good condition as it was considering all the problems others have had.
Still throws a throttle body or sensor code occasionally but runs good, for the time being, knock on wood.

Robot B9

Morgan:
No, this is not true. Most, if not all, new cars have plastic pulleys. Plastic pulleys have proven to be very reliable and long lasting. All the modern engines I have use them. It is not the plastic part that fails, its the metal ball bearings that fails. Sometimes I can get them to last 100,000 miles if I use a needle attachment on a grease gun to lube them up every few years.

A few years ago I did a timing belt on an engine much like yours. On both pulleys the bearings had failed and the ball bearings in them had started to fall out with the engine still running! The noise the engine was making with the pulleys like this was amazing! I replaced everything and all was well again.

I imagine that either your pulleys failed like this (lots of noise) or the mechanic is pulling your leg.

MorganVogt

Robert,

Perhaps this is the issue, though I saw the melded plastic pulley - it was very much destroyed. My mechanic actually had me look through everything, showed me all the damage. Perhaps plastic is more reliable, I don't know, but in my case, it's what appears to have caused all the damage. Still, I'm not an expert. I just know that this shouldn't have happened at 55,000 miles, at least according to all the paperwork and recommendations from GM. That's the most frustrating thing, knowing I did everything right, yet still having to pay for it.

Robot B9

That the pulley had some "melting" does help say what happened.

When the ball bearing inside the pulley fails it might still allow the pulley to turn or it might just freeze up the pulley.

If the pulley can still turn there is going to be some noise, probably a squeel loud enough to notice above normal engine sounds. If a mechanic were driving they would probably stop the engine. But normal people would not notice and keep driving...

On the other hand if the pulley froze up the belt would just rub and create lots of heat, the pulley would start to melt. There might not be much noise but there would probably be a burning smell and the engine would not run right since the timing is now messed up.

In either case the pulley failed because the bearing in it failed. If the pulley had been metal or plastic the result would have been pretty much the same.

So I would have to say that the real issue is the quality of the bearings. And no, the bearings should not have failed in such a short time. There really is no excuse for this.

sergiuhusca

All this car are a "lemon car".
I understand that the plastic pulley is much better, than metalic pulley?

I change distribution belt at 60.000 km.
That looked like pieces.

I don't know but 60.000 miles means 100.000km.
It's the same belt?

bokkus

Hello everyone, joined just for this as it's super aggravating

My 2004 Aveo's timing belt broke yesterday and bent a bunch of valves. I'm only around 52,000 mi on it, but out of the 5 year power train warranty period, though i'm under the mileage for it. Anyways, the Chevy service center said because of this they can't offer me anything, despite the service bulletin acknowledging the problem and manual's recommendation of replacing at 60,000. I spoke with GM customer service who said it is possible the car may be eligible for reimbursement, but cannot promise me anything until the service center sends them a diagnosis.

Has anyone had any luck with this, or can you suggest any tips in dealing with either GM or the Chevy service center?

Thanks so much.

MorganVogt

Bokkus,
As far as I can tell, no one has gotten any sort of reimbursement for this failure. I also have a 2004 Aveo and my belt broke at 55,000 miles. I have logged complaints with Chevy, BBB, my state reps and various other agencies (go to www.aveosfail.com to see who you can contact about this). I don't believe they're under any legal obligation to pay anyone anything for this; however, I'm trying to get them to change the timing belt mileage from 60,000 to 50,000 in their manuals, at the dealerships, etc. This appears to be a huge problem and GM/Chevy doesn't seem to be doing anything about it.

sergiuhusca

Boys i can't understand one thing.
In my service manual GM said that i must to change the distribution belt(timing) at 60.000km or 4 years.One of two.
In your's manuals what they said?
Is the same belt?In Europe and America?