GM appears to have changed the timing belt interval.

My water pump had been leaking for a long while on to the timing belt its a pretty hardy belt


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Three years for a timing belt that was originally a 10 year life? How is this even possible?

Go with the owners manual on this one. Many dealer service intervals are designed for the worst case car and best case dealer wallet.

3 years with a average of 15,000mi a year is only 45,000mi before getting the belt changed. This doesn't add up and would be one of the shortest intervals I've seen. Go with the book. Or the messsge on your DIC.

jkhawaii said:

The owners manual for my 2014 CTD says 10 years or 97000, the dealer service information shows 3 years or 97000.
If that's the case, looks like it's time to replace the timing belt. The water pump already appears to have a slow leak any way.

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dealer service information as in actual gm factory literature only for employees? (are you the mechanic or have you confused with someone else?)

or dealer service information as in emails owners get from service depts for upsells?

Did the part numbers change? Wonder if TechLink has anything on the life span of the timing belt being an issue? There doesn't seem to be anything at NHTSA about diesel timing belts.

Almost every timing belt I've seen short of something German since the 90s is good for 7-10 years OR 70-105k, whichever comes first. If the belt isn't cracked, worn, or deteriorated from oil/coolant leakage, it should be fine to keep spinning.

yeah, no. If they changed it to 3 years, that's when you tell them to pay for it or let it break and have the warranty cover it (if under 5 yrs). Even after the bumper to bumper, if that thing broke under 97k, you better believe I'd be yelling up a storm at GM customer service. This isn't an oil change. It's expensive enough that it should be budgeted in to anyone's buying process and going from having to do this, in my case at 5 years vs. 3 years is a huge difference.

Just for giggles, I did some digging on Service Information. I see where they are getting the 3 years from. In SI there is a section that is the vehicles owners manual. In the maintenance schedule there it is listed as 2.0 Diesel engine Only: Replace the timing belt, timing belt tensioner, idler pulley, and water pump (7) 97,500mi. Under the Footnotes- Maintenance Schedule Additional Required Services- Normal it says (7) Or every three years, whichever comes first. I believe this is a mistake. These copies in SI are known for having mistakes.

CruzeDan said:

Under the Footnotes- Maintenance Schedule Additional Required Services- Normal it says (7) Or every three years, whichever comes first.

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And, in the 2014 Owners manual PDF on chevrolet.com that I just now downloaded, it says "(7) Or every 10 years, whichever comes first."

I went 145K on my timing belt. The only reason I changed it is because one of the pulleys was whining.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfqutOduQGc

Is there a removable top portion of the belt cover? Should be easy to inspect it there to see if it really needs to be replaced.

MP81 said:

Is there a removable top portion of the belt cover? Should be easy to inspect it there to see if it really needs to be replaced.

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I think there is, but not sure how easy to remove. I would probably still be on my original timing belt if it hadn't started whining.

Now that I think of it... the water pump is covered under warranty (or extended warranty) at most I would pay for the timing belt. I may as well repalce it if its going to be removed to replace the water pump.

diesel said:

I went 145K on my timing belt. The only reason I changed it is because one of the pulleys was whining.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfqutOduQGc

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Your 145K is likely 60K of my driving lol. 3 Years and only 32,000 miles for me due to shorter trips and slower average speeds

MP81 said:

Is there a removable top portion of the belt cover? Should be easy to inspect it there to see if it really needs to be replaced.

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looks pretty easy. I'm a bit lazy I guess.

jkhawaii said:

Now that I think of it... the water pump is covered under warranty (or extended warranty) at most I would pay for the timing belt. I may as well repalce it if its going to be removed to replace the water pump.

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Isn't that just the gas water pump? I don't think the extended warranty applies to the diesels.

diesel said:

Isn't that just the gas water pump? I don't think the extended warranty applies to the diesels.

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I have a GMPP extended warranty that covers most things.

diesel said:

Isn't that just the gas water pump? I don't think the extended warranty applies to the diesels.

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The water pump should be covered under the 100k powertrain warranty, yes?