I have a 1985 BMW528e with 223,600 miles. I got the car in 2006 (the timing belt had just been replaced) with 203,000 miles. I was out of the country for a year (car was not driven much by the mechanic who had it). Looking at he specs for timing belt replacement at 4 years/60,000 miles, should I consider doing this now with only 20,000 miles on the timimg belt or can I wait?
It's not worth the risk of suffering nearly-full-engine-rebuild type of damage - 6 yr. old timing belt, change it (I say). Typically one does a water pump and tensioner, perhaps (maybe) discuss those with your mechanic, although if you're going to now be driving it regularly and the next time those come up are 23k miles on top of another 50-60k, then I'd say do those in there while you're at it, would be dumb to suffer damage from a tensioner issue later-on that could have been easily replaced, or have to do the belt and tensioner pulley anyway because the old water pump ends up needing replacement before the timing belt.
