though, I should make note that this is not an emergency action. When we had the starter replaced (and the oil leaks repaired) last week, the service station did an exam of the car while they had it, and found that the timing belt was worn and cracked. Though not threatening an immediate failure, it was still likely to fail sometime in the next 6 months to a year. That isn’t really surprising, on a car that is almost 19 years old. So, we went and filed our taxes, and we’re applying the tax refund to getting the work done, using the credit card to cover the bill until the refund arrives.
Ironically, the car will now be more reliable than it was when we bought it.
Vernon Pope 
From Les’ and my experience, do not wait on timing belts. If you are out the road and it breaks, it does serious damage that is very expensive to repair. It has happened twice to us and now we are diligent about getting timing belts replaced BEFORE they break. It is not cheap to get a timing belt replaced either, because they have to take the whole thing apart, but still way cheaper than the damage caused if you don’t do it. Hondas are particularly notorious for this.
Very true. Though, in my own experience, the one car that was the absolutely worst for timing belts was the 1974 Ford Mustang with the 4-cylendar overhead cam engine. I had one back when my first wife and I were still together, and it went through 3 belts in 6 months!
Hahahaha… not funny at the time…. (big smile on my face)
I am sure the issue with that Mustang was pretty frustrating, and expensive. I did drop off our car this morning to get the repairs done. Apparently, the mechanic must have been having some kind of other problem, because he did not get there until 11:00am, so we won’t get the car back until Wednesday evening. Oh well. They gave me a cool looking loaner car. I wonder if they would be up for a trade? lol ;P
I sold that car for $100, and felt that I was almost ripping the guy off. But then I made the mistake of signing the title before the check cleared, and they stopped payment on the check. I still feel like I got the better end of the deal, but don’t feel guilty about it anymore.