Early Repair?

[Explorer]

Mine is corolla CE 2000 model sedan.
As we use the car occassionally the mileage is only 36K.
Recently when I took my car for service,I was informed that the drive belt has
has minor surfce cracks and also enigne side O ring to be changed.
(He also gave some other minor list).
I was wondering -- for 36K no body of none my acquaintences has changed any part so far.
Am I missiing some thing or the servcie man is wrong or toyota mfg. quality is in question?
Any ideas,pl?
Thanks.

[punter]

Originally Posted by Explorer

enigne side O ring to be changed.

Care to elaborate, which side of the engine is the "engine side"

Low mileage or not the car is 6 years old, perished belts come with age.

[ToyotaMan1281]

do you have a mainteance schedule book that came with the car? It will tell you what has to be done every 5K miles.

[stubborn1]

If the drive (accessory) belt is 6 years old, I would change regardless of mileage. You don't want that belt to break while driving down the road. The belt should be around $35 and take you less than 30 min to change out.

As far as the "engine side o ring", I think we need a little more info.

[Explorer]

Regarding O ring the service guy is mentining that as--
'To replace tensioner O ring (drive belt side)' .
Any ideas please.

[Explorer]

Originally Posted by ToyotaMan1281

do you have a mainteance schedule book that came with the car? It will tell you what has to be done every 5K miles.

Unfortunately no,about the sch.maint, schedule.
Further,I could check maint.schedules and details of them at edmunds.com for corolla.
At times in major service it mentions about inspecting the drive belt only--but no where it mentions 'replace' it after 'particular' mileage.(I have seen up to 100K schedules).
Any body has an idea whether Toyota ever have mentioned any guide lines/norms for these belts (etc accessories) of things of likely life? or it is just to left to 'chance' of breakage or wearing out any time and left to luck?

[JohnO356]

That isn't unreasonable for the belt. As posted above, belts age with time, not just mileage. I do think dealer service departments have a thing going about belt tensioners, though. If the tensioner is tightening down OK, and the pulley is running freely and straight, then leave it alone.

[Explorer]

Just an update on the issue.
Requested for the second opinion(!) on the issues from a senior person of the same servise center.
Upon insistence on to show the reason/cause/state of the equipment for the above conclusion--the situation(opinion) changed(but not willing to change the earlier one dossier, in writing).
The drive belt can log on another 6 months since very minor cracks on the surface(Incidentally I appreciate above replies
for the belt replacement as i understand the logic behind and I am inclined to do it stilll) but
no 'damp' or any sign of 'wetty' for the 'tensioner o ring' area hence no need to replace now!
(posting this to bring out how the things only work!).

Thanks to all.
F.N. The reason why I was very much concerned about the issues was the replacement cost 'quoted' was much mcuh more
and considerable and not a few bucks.