adamc

After 139k miles the timing belt idler pulley shattered, breaking the upper timing belt cover. Had it towed to the local toyota dealership. They recommended replacing the timing belt and cover, idler pulley, drive belt, crankshaft and camshaft seals, water pump, and doing a coolant flush. They quoted $1275. Is this in line. Everything they wanted to replace seemed reasonable, but I have concerns about the need to flush the coolant

manianac

Depending on what you decide, the coolant will be drained anyway. And your owners manual should say LLC should be changed every 30k. Granted a lot of places put additives in the flushes, I personally avoid those.

code58

I personally wouldn't do a flush unless for some strange reason the coolant is nasty. The coolant T/L uses is some of the finest available. I changed my DIL's ay 97K mi. for the 1st time and it absolutely looked like it had just been put in. Later when I changed the W/P trying to find a squeal the interior (water chambers) of the engine looked brand new. The was not one single trace of sediment in the coolant I took out. Most flushes have a cleaner in them that can indeed be corrosive, (ask me how I know). I am astonished that the idler shattered. Those parts are also some of the finest I've ever seen. (my whole life spent in automotive work)

code58

I hope you're not serioius about the 30K mi coolant change. If so, they need to change the name from Long Lift Coolant to EXTRA SHORT Life Coolant! Most LLC's were sold to be good for 100-150K mi. interval and the ELL is even longer. The traditional Prestone of many years ago (really old technology) should have been good for 50K mi. at least. Do you realize that diesel trucks (I know, apples and oranges) NEVER replace the coolant in the life of the truck, even 1,000,000 miles. It doesn't wear out, only depletes the additives. They simply test at intervals and add whatever it shows has depleted in additives.

manianac

That's fine and all, I was merely stating what the maintenance schedule that was included with the owners manual says. Now around '04 - '05 we switched to SLLC, which that is rated for 100K and then 30K after the first change. Granted, this is only what Toyota puts out, its not a strict requirement.

We will all choose to do different maintenance to our vehicles. Anyway, here's part of the maintenance schedule Lexus provides for the '99 year.

adamc

The mechanic at the Toyota dealership said he had only seen this happen to a Toyota/Lexus a couple of times and he has been doing this a while. When I popped the hood and saw the upper timing belt cover broke, I just thought the timing belt broke and took the cover with it. Apparantly, pieces of the idler pulley took it out. It is probably good that it happened now cause the crankshaft and camshaft seals were leaking a little bit.