2006 Sequoia timing belt? (1 Viewer)

[PolarBear]

Greetings, o wise and mighty Toyota gurus. I own six (6) 1958-2012 Land Cruisers, but my sister in New Mexico has owned a 2006 Sequoia since new; it presently has about 55,000 miles on it. A local mechanic has advised her to replace her timing belt as a precautionary/maintenance measure, although the vehicle is exhibiting no symptoms. Now I seem to recall a friend, who had that same V-8 engine in his LC, whose timing belt broke -- with catastrophic consequences. Please share your expert thoughts/judgment regarding proactive/preventative replacement of the Sequoia's timing belt at 13 years/55,000 miles.

 

[GTV]

You own 6 LC’s but none are 100 series?
Factory recommends to change the belt every 90k or 10 years. Some people have gone further (I did 180k+ in my Tundra before I knew better). It’s not worth risking IMO.

 

[PolarBear]

Yep, no 100 series; everyone knows that they're built mostly for wealthy suburban soccer moms -- not the Paris - Dakar Rally. I went directly from my (purchased new -- still own) 1997 FZJ80 to a 2012 FJ Cruiser TRD Trail Teams.

 

[GTV]

Cool. Your loss.

 

[BudgetLC]

I'm sure they are recommending in due to the age. The manual calls for a timing belt every 90,000/72 months. From what I have read, it seems like the later VVT-i 4.7 (2005+) is more prone to engine damage due to a broken timing belt compared with the older non-VVT-i ones. The timing belts seem to fairly robust. The are lots of examples on the 100 forum of people going way over the mileage and/or age recommendations.

That being said, if she is planning on keeping it for several more years, she might want to go ahead and replace it. To me, it's worth the peace of mind. FWIW, when I had the timing belt replaced on my 99 Land Cruiser five years ago, I shopped around and found a dealership what was as cheap as any independent shop and used genuine Toyota parts.

 

[elpeyote]

Greetings, o wise and mighty Toyota gurus. I own six (6) 1958-2012 Land Cruisers, but my sister in New Mexico has owned a 2006 Sequoia since new; it presently has about 55,000 miles on it. A local mechanic has advised her to replace her timing belt as a precautionary/maintenance measure, although the vehicle is exhibiting no symptoms. Now I seem to recall a friend, who had that same V-8 engine in his LC, whose timing belt broke -- with catastrophic consequences. Please share your expert thoughts/judgment regarding proactive/preventative replacement of the Sequoia's timing belt at 13 years/55,000 miles.

If she'd rather sell it than pay for the timing belt service, I'd love to buy a 2006 with 55k miles.