How to know when to change timing belt

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vilasman said:
I think I am going to pull the trigger on a very clean 2004 for 16,500 this weekend. It has 112,000 on it.
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Something just doesn't seem right about that price to me. I'd be cautious..... An 04 with that milage should be priced much higher. Dealers are in business to make money, not give cars away. Care to share a link? Feel free to PM it, since I already have an 04, I'm not in the market. I'm curious.....
 
Timing belts on interference engines is the stupidest idea ever. It took Toyota 20 years to figure it out before they started putting chains back in their engines. I've known far too many people who don't pay attention to the recommended service intervals get very big repair bills because they didn't change the timing belt when it was recommended.

I bought my '99 in 2010. It had 92K on it. I played Russion Roulette for about 6 months until I had the time to replace it. The belt was in excellent condition. The water pump had been weeping for a while and the moisture caused the belt drive gear on the end of the crank to seize onto the crank. It took two days of experimenting with PB Blaster, heat and a gear puller to get it off so i could replace the crank seal. It was not leaking but I wanted to replace it since I was already in there.

I think Toyota's recommendation is 8 years or 90K miles, whichever comes first. $1,000 is a big chunk of money but it's cheap compared to getting the heads rebuilt after you crash a few valves because the belt broke.
 
Finally dropped my 98 off with 155k for replacement

We dropped our 98 off last night to have the TB and water pump done. We purchased it a year ago with 146k. There was a sticker on the intake that showed, for some reason, it was replaced at 46k, but I didn't see it anywhere on the carfax report. According to the report and PO (3rd owner) it was well maintained. A friend of ours is a Lexus mechanic that also has a shop with a lift at his home. He said he'd do the replacements and baselining for around $700. I will be happy to have it done now that we have 156k on it. I've stewed about it long enough. Hopefully we will be good to go for a while. I got rid of my 05 Sierra so maybe now I can get that safari front bumper I keep seeing on here. I love the look of it and plan to drop the OEM running boards.
 
Rmcgee said:
We dropped our 98 off last night to have the TB and water pump done. We purchased it a year ago with 146k. There was a sticker on the intake that showed, for some reason, it was replaced at 46k, but I didn't see it anywhere on the carfax report. According to the report and PO (3rd owner) it was well maintained. A friend of ours is a Lexus mechanic that also has a shop with a lift at his home. He said he'd do the replacements and baselining for around $700. I will be happy to have it done now that we have 156k on it. I've stewed about it long enough. Hopefully we will be good to go for a while. I got rid of my 05 Sierra so maybe now I can get that safari front bumper I keep seeing on here. I love the look of it and plan to drop the OEM running boards.
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True or not, my mechanic has told me that the timing belt can get worn to the point where it puts inordinate stress on the motor even if it's not to the point where it will fail. I'm no mechanic, but I would assume that to be true, and to be a good reason not to delay changing the t-belt too long.
 
sosodefcane said:
True or not, my mechanic has told me that the timing belt can get worn to the point where it puts inordinate stress on the motor even if it's not to the point where it will fail. I'm no mechanic, but I would assume that to be true, and to be a good reason not to delay changing the t-belt too long.
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The timing belt is a binary thing. Its fine until it fails. While it's possible to imagine scenarios where the failure event takes longer than an instant snap, the idea that an older belt puts stress on the engine before its ready to fail is very unlikely.

It would be interesting to ask him just what happens as the belt gets older (but is not at the point of failure). Or just file that as another bogus theory but change the TB on schedule regardless.
 
As a mechanical engineer and a car nut, I'm not really able to see how an old belt puts stress on the motor, except at the point of failure when it snaps or loses a couple teeth.
 
I posted a link in my pull the trigger thread. It is at Hatt motors in Jersey
 
APKhaos said:
The timing belt is a binary thing. Its fine until it fails. While it's possible to imagine scenarios where the failure event takes longer than an instant snap, the idea that an older belt puts stress on the engine before its ready to fail is very unlikely.

It would be interesting to ask him just what happens as the belt gets older (but is not at the point of failure). Or just file that as another bogus theory but change the TB on schedule regardless.
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I'll definitely ask next time I'm in for service.
 
pic of my belt

Hello,

Here's a pic pf my belt with 203K miles and 14 years on it. Pretty cracked for sure.

Mark

belt.webp
 
Hello,
Though my LX has 73,000 miles, I am going to have Toyota do the T-Belt nest week due to the age. I am going to have Lexus do the Transmission and Differential fluids tomorrow as they are preforming the Recalls tomorrow. At least I get a free full tank of fuel due to them doing a Recall. I have never known a car company that offers this.
All the best,
Jack
 
Junglejack said:
Hello,
Though my LX has 73,000 miles, I am going to have Toyota do the T-Belt nest week due to the age. I am going to have Lexus do the Transmission and Differential fluids tomorrow as they are preforming the Recalls tomorrow. At least I get a free full tank of fuel due to them doing a Recall. I have never known a car company that offers this.
All the best,
Jack
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Which recall are you talking about?
 
Hello,
The Daytime Running Lights Recall has never been performed. They were going to do the Trailer Harness, but she said it only applies to 98-99 and not 2000 LX's. I will look more into that, but I have come across the same information,
Best,
J
 
Lexus recommends 8 or 9 years or 90k miles, whichever comes first. When I worked at a dealer, I never saw or heard of one breaking, but we really didn't see a whole lot of people that totally neglected their cars. Saw a couple of cars jump time when drive belt broke throwing debris in the cover. I believe it's an important thing to do, but a year or 10k miles over wont hurt anything.
 
Yesterday, when I took the LX to the dealer, met a mechanic working for the Lexus Dealer. Asked him how much he would charge to replace the TM and the Water Pump on the side. He told me, he would replace both with original parts + labor for $1000.00.

My LX is a 2003 with 60K, 2nd owner. TM and Water Pump have not been replaced.

https://forum.ih8mud.com/100-series-cruisers/431177-timing-belt-dummies-writeup.html

How much is to replace all these parts and where can I get this kit?
 
$1000 is probably very close to dealership prices. I would just have it done at the dealer for that much, loan car and piece of mind the dealer will take care of you if something isn't done correctly. I think a timing belt and water pump pays 6 or 6.5 tech hours FWIW, parts are maybe $300 at most.
 
TXLX100 said:
$1000 is probably very close to dealership prices. I would just have it done at the dealer for that much, loan car and piece of mind the dealer will take care of you if something isn't done correctly. I think a timing belt and water pump pays 6 or 6.5 tech hours FWIW, parts are maybe $300 at most.
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I am a service advisor for a busy Toyota dealership. I probably sell 2-3 4.7 V-8 timing belts a week. First of all the 4.7 is an interference motor. Have I ever had one towed in for a broken belt. (NO) I have seen belts that looked like they were about to break at 90K and belts that still look new at 150k. I can't explain it maybe a lot of climate change. My opinion on it is change it at 90k or 10 years. Do the water pump too, because they usually leak at around 70k . Again most leak some never do. I sell just a t-belt for $ 365 plus tax and a few bucks for shop supplies. The whole package price for T-belt, waterpump and drive belt is $800.00 plus tax. I only sell the front seals after the tech checks them and they seem hard. Idler pulleys rarely on the first T-belt unless they are noisy, hardy ever. On the second T-belt always. This is coming from not only a service advisor also a Top Mercedes tech for 25 years.
 
dynamohm said:
I am a service advisor for a busy Toyota dealership. I probably sell 2-3 4.7 V-8 timing belts a week. First of all the 4.7 is an interference motor. Have I ever had one towed in for a broken belt. (NO) I have seen belts that looked like they were about to break at 90K and belts that still look new at 150k. I can't explain it maybe a lot of climate change. My opinion on it is change it at 90k or 10 years. Do the water pump too, because they usually leak at around 70k . Again most leak some never do. I sell just a t-belt for $ 365 plus tax and a few bucks for shop supplies. The whole package price for T-belt, waterpump and drive belt is $800.00 plus tax. I only sell the front seals after the tech checks them and they seem hard. Idler pulleys rarely on the first T-belt unless they are noisy, hardy ever. On the second T-belt always. This is coming from not only a service advisor also a Top Mercedes tech for 25 years.
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I was a Lexus service advisor for about 4 years, labor rate was about $150/hr a couple of years ago. I think we asked about $800 for t-belt by itself, maybe $1000 - $1100 for t-belt and water pump together. We always informed about crank and cam seals, idlers in advance, sometimes the customer would buy as preventative maintenance. There are definitely some cheaper places you can go than a Lexus dealership, but I was fortunate to have a lot of loyal customers when I did that job.
 
T-Belt WP Replaced

Just had my T-Belt, WP, and thermostat replaced yesterday. Bought the truck with 136k (now at 140k) and no evidence or history of these ever having been changed.

Once my mechanic had it apart he found poor quality aftermarket parts had been installed at one time. Since the WP was weeping/leaking I had him go ahead and replace all with new OEM parts.

All told cost me just south of $700.
 
I've read on several occasions someone saying "just pull back the TB cover and check the condition". Can that be done? I would guess no, but never got an answer from the poster.
 
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