Timing Belt Questions (vehicle, mileage, engine, replace)

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I have a Hyundai Elantra with 75K miles. I know it's time to get a new timing belt. I recently put in new engine mounts (you might remember my post about that, I got it resolved). I have to wait at least another month before I can budget in another car repair. Next week I am picking up a friend at the Seattle airport which is about 150 miles from here. Not very far, but I will be driving through the Cascade mountains to get there and back. I am concerned about my timing belt and if it makes this drive risky. I have a few questions.

Is it possible for a mechanic to check my timing belt and see what condition it is in? Or is there no way to know when it's going to go out just by looking at it? I heard it's a difficult, labor intensive part to replace. Does that mean just examining it would be expensive?

Is driving over a rugged mountain chain at a high elevation hard on a timing belt and make it more likely to break (which I realize would destroy my engine) or does it not make any difference really? I appreciate any response. It's a routine maintenance item. As the above posts point out, you are well beyond the specified replacement. If it were my car, I'd get it done ASAP. The Hyundai is an interference engine, so a broken belt as you know basically means a new engine.

My parents have a Toyota with timing belts and even though they weren't at the mileage interval they had the belts changed because they were a few years past time interval. The vehicle is a and is still not at the mileage interval (only 60K on it), but due to time probably needs to be done again if they decide to keep it. It's their 3rd vehicle, and as the miles indicate doesn't see much use but it's the only 4x4 that they own so they need it for winter.

I don't think any mechanic would want to get involved with any kind of visual inspection, because it could very well snap the next day no matter how good it looked at the time. Then the customer is blaming the mechanic because it broke "after he touched it" or "but you said it was fine and now I need a new engine." Last edited by HWTechGuy; 09-22- at 09:00 AM..