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The RX is difficult due to space btwn engine and strut tower, and also the cam has a tendency to want to rotate over due to springs. Its not a super difficult job, but its not easy...moderately difficult.
We need to get Matt to do oil changes before tackling more daunting task like timing belt change. He has stated that he also lacks the room to do any kind of wrenching.
The worst transverse engine Tbelt job fro me was on Accord many years ago. Getting the cam on bank one in the right position is hard as you can't look at it straight ,,,, but phone camera made it easy for me.
We need to get Matt to do oil changes before tackling more daunting task like timing belt change. He has stated that he also lacks the room to do any kind of wrenching.
The worst transverse engine Tbelt job fro me was on Accord many years ago. Getting the cam on bank one in the right position is hard as you can't look at it straight ,,,, but phone camera made it easy for me.
Salim
Well; to be honest; I dont know that i would attempt the timing belt change myself anyway. salim; Ive already told u why I cant do oil changes myself. But i still feel that i can do much of the "top of engine" items like changing hoses, etc myself. Ive done the easy stuff myself. Changing hvac filter; cleaning maf; changing out power steering fluid. So far I havent had to do the brake fluid yet; although I did look at it a week or 2 ago and it did seem like it was starting to look a little "dark" so i may have to get some new stuff and tackle that. But thats kinda a different scenario there. as far as that goes. New thread will be put up if needed when it comes time for that. Also; as far as doing the timing belt goes; its also the fact that the vehicle would be "out of commission" for several hours and usually for me that can pose a problem as i dont have a second vehicle to use for getting out and doing the other daily things i need to get done. For that i may have to rent a vehicle for a day while mine is possibly at a shop; bearing in mind thats even if i can get a hold of that high amount of $ for getting a shop to do it if need be.
Honda Accord by FAR - most difficult timing belt I have done. But the RX wasnt much easier. The cams LOVE to Lob over just when you *think* the belt is gonna go on.
Much cursing and an hour later, and you will prob get it.
Oil change: Get a Fumoto valve and never get oil on your hands again and drop the oil plug...ran them on all my cars for last 10+ years and they are awesome.
Or - just dont change the oil and run synthetic, just change the filter every 5K miles...Ive been doing that since 2003 on my GS300 which now has 275K miles on it. Screw it! haha
I recently did the timing belt, including tensioner, pulleys and water pump, as well as cam and crank seals. I thought I would post the various tools I used.
First, here are the online DIY's I used for reference:
I don't have a lift, so clearance was an issue. I arranged the breaker bars as shown, using the axle as a brace for the breaker bar at 9 o'clock. Be sure to double-brace your vehicle, the engine will want to move. The pic doesn't show it but there are two jack stands holding the vehicle up and chocks on both sides of the rear passenger wheel.
Turn the crank bolt until the two screw holes on the harmonic balancer pulley are lined up so that the Schley tool will mount at about 4:45 o'clock, as shown in the pic.
I pulled up using the breaker bar at 5 o'clock. I needed all the leveragable space I could get, so once I had the breaker bars in place I put a socket on the front cam bolt (17mm) and rotated backwards (counter-clockwise) just enough to force the 9 o'clock bar against the axle. Use good form and pull up (counter-clockwise) steadily on the 5 o'clock breaker bar.
On re-installation, I used the breaker bars and the Schley tool again on the harmonic balancer pulley to tighten the crank bolt, just in the reverse configuration as for bolt removal.
Cam and Crank Seal Removal:
Once I had the crank bolt off and before I removed the timing belt, I used one of the breaker bars and a standard cam-holding tool to loosen the nuts on the rear and front cams. I used this
). The extraction tool successfully wedged between the seal and the crank, but unfortunately it also broke the inner seal ring and pushed some seal material behind the cam. I used my phone camera to spot and a paint can opener to fish out the scraps.
Installation of the cam seals was no problem. I packed the inner lip and rim of the seals with grease and slid them over the cams. The Schley installer tool did the rest.
For the crank seal, I used the paint can opener as shown in this
Just finished up the TB water pump, camshaft seals, crankshaft seal. I hit a roadblock at noon yesterday when I could not remove the cam gears. The SOB who built the engine used green locktite on the cam bolts and crank bolt. It took bumping the start to break the crank bolt loose, but I needed to order a tool to hold the cam gears from turning. So i got back into it at 9a and finished at 2pm. Hated doing it, but love saving $1000+ by DIY. Installing the cam seals looked to be impossible. Thanks to Kevvo1 I used his suggestion to use the cam bolt to press in the seal. Worked flawlessly. I used a 1/2" peice of pvc pipe with a big washer and it slid right into place. The old seals were hard as rock. What caught me off guard was the rear cam gear was reverse in orientation to the front. The flange was away from the engine. Glad I caught that.
Does anyone have any tips on how to secure CAM 1 from moving clockwise or counterclockwise when trying to install the new timing belt? Also, my new belt seems too small to slip over crank shaft when it is looped around the tensioner wheel and the idler pulley my new tensioner is in with bolts barely started.. I'm hoping when Cam1 is secure I can get additional slack to get belt on. (I'm using a Mitsubishi belt from Asin water pump kit) 2000 RX300 1MZ-FE with VVt. Thanks for any advice.
Zip tie the belt to the cam gears, put the upper idler on last, then pull the pin on the tensioner. Don't forget to remove the cable ties! Tip: with the belt secured to the gears you can rotate them as needed to get the rest of the belt threaded and the upper idler in place.
Does anyone have any tips on how to secure CAM 1 from moving clockwise or counterclockwise when trying to install the new timing belt? Also, my new belt seems too small to slip over crank shaft when it is looped around the tensioner wheel and the idler pulley my new tensioner is in with bolts barely started.. I'm hoping when Cam1 is secure I can get additional slack to get belt on. (I'm using a Mitsubishi belt from Asin water pump kit) 2000 RX300 1MZ-FE with VVt. Thanks for any advice.
I had that happen once and it turned out that the pin on the tensioner got bumped and it was just stuck in the rubber boot. Compare the pin height with the old. Solution was to compress the pin back in with a vise or c-clamp. IN a pinch you can remove the bolts on the tensioner (evenly) [same way as in removal of belt). Put on the new belt and match the marks. Then instal the tensioner and evenly tighten the bolts.
Thank you for the advice Lexus2000 and Salimshah. I was able to get the belt on successfully after 6 hours of struggle primarily on the Cam 1 moving on me, and as a rookie. I did use the zip tie method earlier which does work well but in one of my numerous attempts it skipped a tooth and I cut zip tie to set belt correctly on the mark. I then delicately and carefully secured it in 2 spots with harbor freight $2 clamps. (I was too exhausted/frustrated to try and fish ziptie thru rear Cam). Success for me was achieved by backing out the 2- 12MM bolts to the point of barely being on the tensioner. (I had it loose but I guess that tolerance is so tight every turn on those 2 bolts helps or hurts you). I was too afraid of yet another Cam spin when tugging on belt that my solution was to have my assistant hold both Cams with wrenches Spot on marks and I did my thing on the crankshaft. I did the trick to have cam gear off by a 2 teeth to the left of engine mark, put belt on Crank gear mark eith ease, then moved crank slightly while holding belt tight to teeth (it will want to skip) much of slack then is then transferred to the tension pulley side and it magically goes on the tension pulley without struggle. Then did the final crank tooth turn 1 click for final minimal slack between crank and Cam 2. I tightened the tensioner bolts lest the belt fall off overnight. All marks spot on! Also using a phone camera set on filming mode is best on Cam 2 mark versus mirror. Ill do the manual crank turn part today and button the thing up. Biggest DIY mechanical job I've done. Much thanks to Club Lexus Forum and YouTubers.
Once you turn the engine [minimum two full circles of the main pulley, the marks on the pulleys should match, but the marks on the belt will not, so dont freak out on that account.
I extend the marks on the belt over to the side. Then I install the top cams and make sure I dont have any slack and then ease the tow cams about 2 teeth forward giving myself some slack n the main pulley then ease the belt on to main matching mark and then twist back the top cams to remove the slack and go back to the engine block marks. With the three gears set the slack is on the tensioner side.
Thank you for the advice Lexus2000 and Salimshah. I was able to get the belt on successfully after 6 hours of struggle primarily on the Cam 1 moving on me, and as a rookie. I did use the zip tie method earlier which does work well but in one of my numerous attempts it skipped a tooth and I cut zip tie to set belt correctly on the mark. I then delicately and carefully secured it in 2 spots with harbor freight $2 clamps. (I was too exhausted/frustrated to try and fish ziptie thru rear Cam). Success for me was achieved by backing out the 2- 12MM bolts to the point of barely being on the tensioner. (I had it loose but I guess that tolerance is so tight every turn on those 2 bolts helps or hurts you). I was too afraid of yet another Cam spin when tugging on belt that my solution was to have my assistant hold both Cams with wrenches Spot on marks and I did my thing on the crankshaft. I did the trick to have cam gear off by a 2 teeth to the left of engine mark, put belt on Crank gear mark eith ease, then moved crank slightly while holding belt tight to teeth (it will want to skip) much of slack then is then transferred to the tension pulley side and it magically goes on the tension pulley without struggle. Then did the final crank tooth turn 1 click for final minimal slack between crank and Cam 2. I tightened the tensioner bolts lest the belt fall off overnight. All marks spot on! Also using a phone camera set on filming mode is best on Cam 2 mark versus mirror. Ill do the manual crank turn part today and button the thing up. Biggest DIY mechanical job I've done. Much thanks to Club Lexus Forum and YouTubers.
i've just done the t-belt on my rx300 last month, i found this 1mz on rx300 is the easiest due to extra room in engine bay in comparison to camry.
i've used two zip ties per cam sprocket, the assorted zipies i bought in bulk from walmart $9.99 per bottle, easily feed through the cam gear, initially i tried one ziptie per cam sprocket, small enough to feed through behind cam sprocket, about 5 or 6 inches in length, and as cam sprocket rotate a little bit, the belt would jump a tooth, but having a 2nd ziptie and spread as far apart as possible on the cam sprocket did the trick for me, in 1st shot, i also bought a brand new oem belt tensionor, after i tighten up the two 12mm bolts for the tensioner, i just pull the grenade pin, and it released the tension and tighten the timing belt, and rotate crankshaft 2 time and the notches on all 3 gears still line up. and the engine starts right up and run smoothly as before.
I can’t DIY so I am wondering if those of you who can would recommend an official Lexus service repair for the timing belt water pump? I feel very uncomfortable with the discussion I just had with my independent mechanic. He told me on Friday to replace the timing belt and water pump because he could hear them clicking. Concerns: 1) He didn’t see them he heard it so if he opens it up he will want to replace both just because he is there and because it is commonly done, 2) Is an after market belt good or would I get a better quality belt at the Lexus dealer and 3) he didn’t mention any sensors maybe he doesn’t know the Lexus engine? I wish I could do my own but given I don’t have the ability what do you recommend? I read a ton about interference and I believe mine is as a 1999 so this is an important question to me. Thank you!
02-12-16, 03:23 PM
