Timing belt question

[Glow9]

Long and short of it is, have a 2002 car with only 30,000 km's on it. Been garage stored for the last 5ish years un-driven. It still starts up just fine practically a brand new car. Does a timing belt deteriorate at all if just left on a car not driven? Going to be taking it out of storage this week and I know the guys at the dealership are going to tell me it needs to be changed. But my 2003 with 70,000 miles not km's still has its original timing belt

[jason str]

Its really a coin toss, i have seen timing belts fly off taking the valves with them rolling off the truck from the plant and have seen them go 200,000 without an issue , you just never know.

If you have oil leaks over or around the front of the engine i would repair the leaks and replace the belt as oil will eat away at the belt.

It would not be a bad idea to replace the belt if you plan to keep the vehicle assuming some dumbass does not do a hack job replacing the thing. ( I don't trust anybody working on my vehicles ).

[CrazyNutz]

I second the coin toss. Rubber parts can and will deteriorate overtime even if they are not being used. But if it were me I would prolly just take the chance and then replace it around 70k.

[Rob94hawk]

If it's a belt then I would change it. If it's a chain then no.

[Luka_Aveiro]

You should replace the belt, normally OEMs recomend replacing the T-Belt around 80,000 kms or 5 years.

Better safe than sorry.