Don't let this happen to you

[bctlex]

Yes, always Florida.

Not a clue as to style. All I know is he owns a small construction company - it was his work truck, said 4wd came in handy for wet work sites. He gets wife's hand me down - sold this one when he took over her old LX.

Looked online, nothing recorded since 2005, saw things like tires, etc., but no major repair/maintenance actions.

Water pump looked OK, zero evidence of leaks, but the neck of the thermostat housing (part with the larger o-ring) took me hours to get off - aluminum corroding together and all.

No seepage. The garage did mention they had fixed some oil leaks, but there was no evidence that anybody ever pulled the front of the engine apart. Valve cover gasket leaks?

There may be three different brands of spark plug coils based on the color of the lower part of the tower that fits over the plugs.
I think one of the rear heater hose plastic T's had been replaced as it was in very good shape while the other one fell apart as I was removing the hoses.
I cleaned the fuel injector butterfly and MAF sensor, but they didn't need much, someone had been in there before.
Alternator is pretty new (clean and shiny).

Basically no maintenance records were kept, but at $4K purchase price with the AHC, climate control, sun roof, folding mirrors, seat heaters, etc all working, I was willing to take the chance. I was scared to drive it with so many possible miles on the TB, so all I did was get it home (it was only 2 blocks away) until I was able to find the find to change out the belts, pump and pulleys.

Wow this is probably the most miles on TB that I have ever heard. Congrats on the purchase, you got a pretty great deal there.

 

[White Stripe]

Oh your talking about the fan bracket, that pulley rides on.

Yea

 

[Jason YY]

Time for a follow up, I had my rig delivered to the local dealership on Wednesday. I know it broke down on Sunday, and basically I spent two days waffling between doing it myself and having the dealer do it.

If I had done it myself , I would have saved about 1000.00 however this is my only car and it was easier to just have it done by a professional. My 02 has 212,000 miles on it the mechanic said based on the service sticker the previous belt was done at 99K. He was surprised the belt broke with no apparent reason. The tensioner and Idler bearings had not failed.

I went ahead and had them done along with the water pump, spark plugs and T pipes at the fire wall, I can't say enough about how great these cars are, I have put about 100k on mine with only oil changes and brakes.

As for dealer service, I really don't feel ripped off just a little annoyed about some of the charges. However when its all said and done, I have my LX back and it seems to be running great.


I have all the old parts, I believe the broken belt was supplied by Napa

 

[jclarke450]

Wow.... 219k miles on a Timing Belt and perhaps ~15 years. I'm really interested in any history, like:

Has it always been in the FL.?
Any clue as to PO's driving style i.e. lite or heavy foot?
Have you every checked with Toyota with respect to service records?
How'd water pump look tight & dry or loose & wet? (keep it clean..LOL)
How about the cam & crank seals, any seepage?

Sorry for being such a PITA, but stories like this get me going.

In another thread I mentioned that in late December I did the tb on my buddies 4runner with the 4.7. Only 12 years old but 266k+ on original tb/wp and spark plugs. It still ran great and tb looked great. Plugs looked good except for 1 electrode on no 6 cylinder plug. WP was just starting to seep. That was in Kansas City weather.

 

[snoname]

Without digging up the receipt - I doubt the idlers and tensioner were replaced.

Quote is like 1300.00 with new water pump, idlers & tensioner . (this is thru the local Toyota dealer, they claim it's a non interference engine) The price for the water pump seems high at over 300.00 but other than that the belt alone is like 599.00 parts and labor.

I really like my LX- and unfortunately I was complacent in my maintenance but this has been a real joy to own. Basically change the oil regularly , add gas and go. Just pissed I put the dam belt off a week.

I ordered all the parts on Amazon Prime other than fluids including the fan bracket for under 400 shipped, including tax? That was with OEM thermostat, OEM oil filter, Stant thermostat seal, Gates upper and lower radiator hoses, Aisin timing kit (TKT-021), Beck Arnley crank seal, Beck Arnley cam seals, and Aisin fan pulley bracket (FBT-002)... Might be worth looking at

 

[Jason YY]

Bringing this post back to life-
as a review , initially I had misfire codes prior to the snapping of the timing belt. The service tech suggested that just fixing the broken belt and replacing the spark plugs may solve the issues.

I went ahead and had that done, now its been 2800 miles no codes running great. But what about the misfires ? I would have thought that by now I would have thrown a code.

If I had to guess, I would say I have a coil pack thats "beginning to fail" or ready to fail. Should I just keep going until it fails? and what about replacing the boots on the coil packs as maintenance how many miles on a coil pack boot before replacing?

 

[2001LC]

Are you still getting a misfire? If not, it was probable belt jumping around caused the misfire and codes.
Two camps on coils replacement 1) Once fail. 2) As PM. I started below thread as data collect point just to help answer this question, which you may have seen.
When to replace Ignition coils.

 

[Jason YY]

Thanks- I bought some new coil packs will just wait for them to fail. (OEM- not really interested in buying 5 more new OEM ones just for funzies )