2006 Highlander timing belt replacement

[Zack1978]

HI everyone,
My mom has an 06 Highlander with the regular (non-hybrid) V6. She is close to 100,000 miles, so I assume that a timing belt change is near. What can she expect a shop to charge to do this job? Her engine is not an "interference" engine correct? What parts other than the belt itself should be changed at this point? Is this a difficult timing belt change? Any other tips or ideas?



Thanks,
Zack

 

[KLF]

I did ours last summer (same engine). Besides the belt, I also did both idler pulleys, the front main seal, and the engine belts. I had a minor squeal coming out of the front of the engine, so I played it safe and did both pulleys. I also bought the water pump, but it REALLY complicated the job, so I bailed and returned it. List price on all the parts was ~$400 (including the water pump), but I bought everything from C-Dan so it wasn't so bad. Obviously I replaced all the coolant too.

Doing the belt isn't bad. The water pump is stupidly hard. Some engineer at Toyota needs to be slapped for requiring the rear of the timing cover to be removed, which requires removing the cam pulleys. That doesn't sound so bad, except that the rear one is really buried, no easy access.

Recommended change interval is 90K. I don't think this is an interference engine.

I really need to change the spark plugs too, but I haven't worked up the courage to pull the intake off so I can reach the rear bank. As you can probably tell, I'm not crazy about working on this engine.

BTW, have you had it checked to see if it is one of the models in that recall last fall, something about a washer/gasket under the master cylinder reservoir that needs to be replaced. I took ours in to have it done last weekend. No charge, took about an hour.