tophog

I recently purchased a 2004 LS w/Premium/Sport Suspension from an 88 yr old lady and the car has 23K miles, garaged it's entire life and serviced every 6 months at dealer. Have all service history in hand but doesn't show timing belt was ever replaced which I think is 90K or 6 years.

What should I do ...have it changed or wait? Car is perfect in every way and aside from the timing belt it looks like coolants been replaced, brake fluid flushed and a few alignments. I did have to have the ML amp fixed as it was DOA already (I was aware of this prior to purchase).

Looking for some guidance on the TB.

Thanks.

tmf2004

iTrader: (15)

some will say replace it and others may say wait awhile... My impression with the TB is wear and tear and mileage... It would be different if the car had 100k and was abused but i'm betting she drove carefully for those 23k miles..

Lavrishevo

iTrader: (1)

I agree, the timing belt is fine. I would go ahead and do all the fluids if they have not and maybe decarb the throttle body and clean the maf. Nice pickup. 23k miles is very low.

LiCelsior

iTrader: (32)

low mileage or not, i would inspect it for cracking and wear. those rubber pieces dont last forever now.

CarGuy89

I had a similar dilemma a few months ago. I had 50k or so on it at the time (last yr), and finally caved in and got it done for peace of mind since I was commuting from MI to Chicago a lot. Dealer said water pump was fine so it was maybe 600ish. I would say do it just for peace of mind, you won't have to worry about it for a while then.

Bocatrip

I remember having the same dilemma with my mom's 2000 Honda Accord a number of years ago when the car had 45,000 miles. The car was over 10 years old at the time and so I folded and replaced the belt and water pump. Turns out the belt had no signs of wear whatsoever. With 25,000 miles I'd skip it until you put some serious miles on your car. The original belts on our cars are extremely tough and I've heard of owners going 150,000 miles with the original belts. If you are a worrier, change it.

warminwisc

How much time do you save "inspecting it" versus going further? Never really new it was easy to inspect it.

Doc Yota

All three LS's I have owned showed no wear to the timing belt when I had them changed with two cars having the belt and pump changed well beyond 130,000 miles and one at 70,000. All three times I went to the dealership to check progress and could not tell the difference between the new belt and the old. From my experience I would think you should be just fine. Keep watch for coolant leaks and bearing noise though...

ls430lover

hi all depends on the climate if its a moderate climate or a garage kept car chances are your fine, you can go with mileage rather than age, i would have the coolant flushed so your water pump doesn't go from the acidity in old fluid.
safe driving congrats on the low mileage find

toddmorr

agree with the others. Check the water pump for weeping and listen carefully for any bearing noise. If its fine, you've just saved yourself some bucks---most often, its the water pump that fails, putting pressure on the timing belt and causing it to fail, not the timing belt itself.
nice find...at 28k i bet that baby is wonderful

tophog

Thanks for all the responses. Considering I haven't found a single thread of the TB breaking on an LS430 think I'm comfortable waiting ...perhaps to 80K if something else doesn't warrant earlier replacement. Car lived its entire live in central OR area inside a garage so NW climate, mild, etc. I'm typically **** on vehicle maintenance, etc. but then again I'm not into wasting money. Guess if it breaks I'll consider myself stupid for not replacing and consider it an expensive lesson learned. In this case I'm going to play the odds.

I replaced air/cabin filters, oil was just changed @ dealer. Brake fluid/coolant was replaced at 21K so think I may replace rear diff fluid and drive it. Had snow tires on it so getting a set of Michelin Primacy MXV4's installed on Monday. Have ran those on several VW TDI's we've had with great results.

Thanks again for all the feedback.

Some picts.

http://imgur.com/a/QjhZ0

Pamperme

U spent good money purchasing a low mileage. Go ahead and and add that extra insurance and replace the timing belt. Think about it, the amp died and the car was barely driven and it was an 88 yr old lady. I doubt she blasted the tunes. If she took it in every 6 months, were the other belts replaced? If so, I'd follow suit with the timing belt. Even if the dealer didn't see the need to change the timing belt despite beeing over the time deadline, I'd still replace it. If it ( or the water pump) failed, it would scar the benefits of such a low mileage purchase. It's worth the peace of mind.

lorenr

iTrader: (1)

Sounds like the same car I bought. I needed a spare care for our vacation home and bought an 02 LS 430 with 60,000 miles and all receipts. The lady is our neighbor, 77 and was worried about all the needed repairs.

What the dealers did to this women is nothing short of criminal. The stack of receipts showed 3 break jobs (the rotors are now warped), 2 transmission fluid changes (one was 3 quarts, the other was 14 quarts), hoses, belts (3 times) and a host of bull crap. At 40 K, Lexus suggested a timing belt but for some reason I didn't have an invoice for that.

She rarely did more than two thousand miles between oil changes. They never did use a high quality synthetic but the price suggested otherwise.

I have had to review all their repairs just to find and correct some of what they did. Amazing what can be done by some of these guys.

If it is not required, do not do it, this includes the timing belt. I've never heard of a timing belt breaking on these cars and some have come in with nearly 200,000 miles.

Loren

tophog

Similar but in my case it looks like the dealer didn't take advantage of the lady. 6 months services since new, mostly oil changes and general inspections aside from brake fluid and coolant done at 20K miles.

I did find on Lexus's website the car had Nav system upgrade/replaced early on due to recall or problem, new backup camera and the transmission replaced @ 4K miles. Wasn't even aware of the transmission issue on early 04's until after I purchased so was glad to find those things have already been taken care of.

The timing belt is the only aspect of the car that hasn't been addressed and I need to determine if I want to dump more money into it ...or roll the dice. If I could find cases where TB has broken based on age alone it would be a no brainer.

tmf2004

iTrader: (15)

kind of funny. one the LS's I researched at the local dealer had nav replaced and transmission at very low mileage. is this common?