I have owned my 99 Land Cruiser for 13+ years now, and now that my rig is 17 years old I have come to appreciate having a timing belt on it. I am somewhat anal about car maintenance, and I like that the old 4.7 is Designed to have its timing components serviced, vs being "lifetime". There's a sort of peace of mind knowing that the belt, tensioner, and various idler pulleys have been replaced.
Now for those of you who think I'm crazy, I had the unfortunate experience of owning a 2003 Range Rover. The single worst car I ever owned! I spent many thousands of $$$$$ getting everything in perfect order when the timing guides gave out on it. This caused the motor to be toast which made me sell the car at a big loss. I also own a 2008 Dodge Ram, which the original owner had to replace the motor at 60k due to a broken timing chain.
So it begs the question. For those of us who choose to own older vehicles (and plan to keep them long term), could a vehicle with a timing belt be a better choice? Yes, a timing chain is considered to be maintenance free, but can it be counted on to go 300-400,000 miles on the original chain? I know that timing chains can be replaced, but that seems to be rarely recommended if ever.
I'm not trying to say timing chains are a bad thing, just wondering if anyone else out there has considered that timing belts (which Toyota appears to have abandoned?) may not be altogether a bad thing.
Now for those of you who think I'm crazy, I had the unfortunate experience of owning a 2003 Range Rover. The single worst car I ever owned! I spent many thousands of $$$$$ getting everything in perfect order when the timing guides gave out on it. This caused the motor to be toast which made me sell the car at a big loss. I also own a 2008 Dodge Ram, which the original owner had to replace the motor at 60k due to a broken timing chain.
So it begs the question. For those of us who choose to own older vehicles (and plan to keep them long term), could a vehicle with a timing belt be a better choice? Yes, a timing chain is considered to be maintenance free, but can it be counted on to go 300-400,000 miles on the original chain? I know that timing chains can be replaced, but that seems to be rarely recommended if ever.
I'm not trying to say timing chains are a bad thing, just wondering if anyone else out there has considered that timing belts (which Toyota appears to have abandoned?) may not be altogether a bad thing.
