Had my local shop replace timing belt as water pump was shot. My mechanic knew all the buzz words including its a good idea to replace tensioner, other belts. Total cost of $900 and it took a good 8 hours including road test. I am happy so far :-)

The old timing belt after 86K miles looks in excellent condition. I kept all the belts in case of an emergency in the middle of nowhere. Mechanic recommended I would be better off waiting for a timing belt to be delivered or have the car transported even though he said the belt looked in great shape.

After reading about the need to replace the timing belt at around 100K miles, I was expecting to see my old belt with some wear and tear. What do you look for to determine belt condition? Has anyone seen a belt that was replaced just in the nick of time?

Timing belts are deceptive and it is very tempting to consider using one again but don't do it. What is difficult to see in most cases is that the teeth may be separating internally from the belt. since the belt shound not contact anything but the pulleys and tensioner it does not appear to show wear. I work on a lot of cars and buy and sell cars for a crazy hobby so I see a lot of under maintained belts and sometimes buy cars with a belt that jumped time and crashed valves (my J30). It required me to remove the heads and replace several valves. I can almost assure you that amount of work by anyone getting paid for it will cost more than most any J30 is worth. If you pop a timing belt it will cause internal engine damage so simply replacing the belt is a waste of time. When a belt does finally break it does so pretty suddenly so it could look fine and then come apart in the next 100 miles.