My dad and I looked at the timing belt on my 99 Zx2 with 110k miles and it looks fine. Not streched, no cracks or anything, Dad has been around cars his whole life and I don't think he'd steer me wrong. He said let it go for another 25k and check it. I was told it is a JOB to replace Along with water pump and and ideler pullies and a oil pressure sensor. One guy quoted me $850 for water pump, timing belt/pullies, and that sensor.OUCH!!!! I'm in college.
What is your advise? The belt looks Great. I'll post a pic when I get to it.

 

I was looking in my daughters owners manual on her 2002 ZX2 and it sez change the timing belt at 120 or 125,000 mi.(can't remember which). Her car has the dohc eng.(Mazda maybe). Some ZX2's have different engine.

 

If you're not comfortable with doing the job--that's fine, I'd never touch a car with a sideways engine ever again--get more quotes for the job.

 

Dan. I'll let you change it then. if you think it's easy. I'm about to cry thinking about this job.

 

My advice is to change it. I've done a few of the 2.0 DOHC belt changes and what typically happens is that a tensioner/pulley seizes up and strips out the teeth on the timing belt. This happens quite often at the 100K to 130K range. Being a non-interference engine, the cost is the same whether you do it as preventive or whether it seizes up on you, but consider the towing charge. This could be done by yourself if you have the proper tools and a floor jack.
The repair parts also can be bought individually or as a kit sold by some auto part stores. YMMV.

 

Bring it over and I'll do it, no problem! As I said, my SHO was a bit of a PITA but not as bad as my boss's Toyota 4runner that I did last summer...now that one was a major pain!

Really, it's all in how you tackle it. Familiarize youself with all the steps involved, make sure you have all the tools and parts you'll need beforehand, and make sure you know where everything is located under the hood. If you make up your mind that it's gonna be a bad one, then it probably will be.

I read up on the SHO timing belt on a couple of SHO websites before I started and budgeted myself the whole day for it, just in case anything went wrong. It didn't, and the whole job only took me about 3 hours. I actually enjoyed it...(but then, I'm a bit of a masochist!)

 

I'm not sure if it's really similar or not, but, I replaced the timing belt on my 97 Escort 2.0 SOHC. I know the Escort and ZX2 are the same, but what's different about the timing belt on the twinstick 2.0 I'm not sure. You may even have the same engine as I did. I'm not sure if all the ZX2's got the DOHC, or if you might have the SOHC

If you have the SOHC, or if the DOHC is similar, I'd tell you to do it. It wasn't really that hard to do on my Escort. It took 2 hours or less I think; it's not as scary to unbolt that motor mount as it looks. FWIW, I didn't change anything but the belt. Everything else looked very good. I changed mine at 100k miles, and sold the car at 140k with no problems.