I possess a 2002 Hyundai Elantra VE (I think in the USA it’s called an Elanta GL.) It is now at 98.000 KM (60,000 miles) and I have to put about $400 of work into it (tie rods, some brake work.)
I challenged the dealer to make his best offer to take it off my hands (it’s a lease) and sell me a new one. His offer was quite tempting, but it would be more money. The critical issue is; What kind of maintenance can I expect a car this age and milage to incur in a span of 12-15 months and 20000-30000 kilometres?
Is there a site or a publication that might tell me?
Or would Dopers have some experience in this?
Again, for reference’s sake, it is a 200 Hyundai Elantra VE. 98,000 Km, or 60,000 miles. It just had its full-level 48,000 KM service, and the front tie rods were replaced and brake pads replaced. This is really the first time it’s needed anything fixed. I take pretty good care of it. So what will it cost me in maintenance to run it for 15 months, or 30,000 KM? How much of a risk am I really running?
Well, my metric conversion skills are a bit rusty, but it is time for a timing belt @ 60,000mi, I bet. If you have the same 100,000mi powertrain warranty as us 'merkins, you probably want to have that done soon (and save receipts), as it is an interference engine.
You’ll find the answer to your general question, as far as scheduled maintenance goes, in your owners manual. Aside from that, you are asking us to predict the future. With a new car such as yours, you are unlikely to incur a huge repair expense, especially if you keep up with scheduled maintenance and pay common-sense attention to your car.
Timing belt breaks without any symptoms or warning, pistons mash into valves, engine is pretty much trashed. It’ll cost a substantial chunk of money to have the heads rebuilt or replaced, and that’s assuming the pistons aren’t so badly damaged that they need replacing as well, at which point, it may be easier and cheaper to simply replace the entire engine.
Assuming gotpasswords already answered your first question with his grisly post, you wanna know how much it’ll cost you to get the timing belt replaced. I’m sorry to say it but, it depends. The part is not expensive, figure 40 metric dollars, but labor can be a coupla hours. What lies between the mechanic and the timing cover makes a big difference.
The following is posted not as a response to the OP or other posters, but strictly in the interest of fighting ignorance in general:
Your timing belt is probably not going to break at 60,001 miles. It’ll probably last much longer than that. In my experience, when it is replaced per the maintenance schedule, it will still be in good shape with plenty of life left. Still it makes sense to do it. If you haven’t the money to fix it at 60K start budgeting for it and do it soon. Here’s a recent thread in which timing belt replacement intervals were discussed:
Not all cars have timing belts. Some have timing chains, which are much less likely to break. Furthermore, not all cars have interference engines, cars with non-interference engines may be immobilized, but unharmed, by timing chain failure.
Sometimes you’ll hear it makes sense to always replace the water pump at the same time you replace the timing belt because 90% of the work is already done (some engines drive the water pump with the timing belt), but when you’ve put miles on a new vehicle this quickly, IMHO it is not really necessary to do it. If you’re not putting miles on so quickly, or if you own a used vehicle with high miles and/or unknown history it absolutely makes good sense to do the water pump at the same time.