bjohn

I would do someone else's timing belt for $400, easily. shouldnt take more than. 5-6 hours if all goes correctly.

repugnante

It is an interference engine however our timing belts are amongst the strongest I have seen. My car went 145,xxx on the original belt!!! Wasn't even missing any teeth...you can do this job yourself if you follow the instructions very, very carefully

Purchased all my stuff from ebay:

Timing belt (Mitsuboshi)
Water Pump (Aisin)
Tensioners (Koyo)

these are all OEM parts that Toyota installs on your car and stamps their name on it

Kyle Harty

iTrader: (17)

I need to do this soon, have heard good things on the Aisin kits from here. http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/x,ca...AISIN%2BTKT021

My understanding was that its Asian market Toyota parts, could be a little off on that. Either way, my view is that the car is old enough now that I'm not gonna spend big money on "dealer" parts, doubt the difference is that significant.

repugnante

Aisin is owned by Toyota. Our cars are equipped with many things provided by Aisin (i.e. water pump, tranny...)

bjohn

I would never buy dealership parts for a car witg over 100k... Just throwing money away in all honesty. Got my kit for $140 shipped, and all parts including the water pump look as good as oem.

repugnante

I would say that for Hondas and Nissans...not Lexus.

What I did was find out who the manufacturer was for each part and looked for each item individually. Like the belt is made by Mitsuboshi, the WP is made by Aisin and so on...together I spent $150 for the same exact OEM parts that Lexus will supply you with

krispl

AISIN is original supplier for toyota and lexus. This kit includes Koyo idler bearings, Mitshuboshi belt and Aisin water pump. All you need to get in addition to this is thermostat, coolant and tensioner.

I did this back in December. Took me 9 hours but it went great!

Belt was still good but water pump was slowly seeping.

I can do this for members in Northern California for $650 total; including aisin kit and other OEM parts. at my garage

bjohn

I believe you supported my point. I wouldnt pay the lexus dealership for their "package", but rather buy parts aftermarket (parts stores, online etc) at a VASTLY discounted cost. Saw in a thread awhile back someone paying *ONLY* $300 for eight spark olugs, and install haha. I about spit my coffee out at thay one haha.

raytseng

Regardless of the potential damage arguments,

The point you are missing is ARE you going to do this eventually?

You either are going to change your belt once or twice.
If you are going to do it eventually, do it now, so you can get miles on the new belt and use it.
First belt lasted 12 years. Do you really see yourself driving the same car in 2024?

If not, why are you wanting to squeeze out every mile on your first belt, and what are you "saving' the 2nd belt for? Or are you planning to get rid of the car before you need to service it so you can completely avoid the maintenance?

If you really don't care. You might as well just ignore the other Lexus recommended maintenance and stop changing your oil and everything else too.


For your other question,

If you google the history of timing belt vs timing chain, you will see the reason why they switched from chain to belt. Then in recent years (say mid2000s), all new models since then switched back to chain (better engineering and tolerances now).

This car is not a new design, it is a 1998 design (14years). So all the things you heard about new cars being smarter and not needing t-belt maintenance don't apply to this car. Most "talk" about cars refers to modern cars (past 3 years). A lot of things have changed since 1998.
If you don't want to do t-belt maintenance, get a newer model car not one from the 90s(all the newer lexus use chains).