100,000 mile maintenance for a 1999 Eclipse RS
 

Hello,

I’m somewhat inexperienced in terms of car maintenance. I drive a manual transmission 1999 Mitsubishi Eclipse RS (2.0L engine, non-turbo). The car currently has 99,000 miles and I’m wondering what service I should have done at the 100,000 mark. Since I’m a student I don’t have much money to spare, but I want to keep the car running. Here are some of the issues I am concerned with:

Timing belt: My old mechanic told me that I should change my timing belt preemptively at 100,000 miles because you can’t easily inspect the belt in this model of Eclipse, and if it breaks then my valves will be shot too. From what I’ve read online, it was mostly the turbos that had this problem. However, I am operating under the assumption that the previous owner never changed the belt, so it’s still running on its original timing belt.

Two other belts [?]: Someone I spoke to recently said there are two belts that might as well be replaced when they go in for the timing belt, since it wouldn’t be any extra labor and the belts are fairly cheap. I’m not sure what they would be…

Fuel filter: I last replaced this at 81,000 miles.

Spark plugs: I last replaced these at 81,000 miles (manual says to change them every 15,000).

A friend told me at 100,000 I should also check the water pump & the front left/right axle boots (not sure why).

Things the manual says I should change but I don’t know what they are:
- Automatic transaxle fluid & filter (Is this only for automatic transmissions? The manual says to change them every 30,000).
- Transfer oil (manual says to change this every 15,000).

Sorry to be such an amateur but I really could use the help of anyone who knows about these things. I’ve been tempted to find a mechanic off craigslist to do this work for me on the cheap. Is this a bad idea for some or all of this maintenance? Are the repairs listed above all necessary at this time? Thanks!!!!