mowmow

I bought the belt, water bump, antifreeze coolant, belt tensioner kit from Sewell last year and had my mechanic did the swap. Parts and labor comes to $750, Sewell do have a 90K kit with only belts. It's debatable whether or not to do the water bump but for me I want longevity and a reliable daily driver so I bite the bullet and bought all the parts and did everything with Toyota Parts.

neelnaik

I know people are going to disagree with this, and yes I am aware the manual says to change them at 120K, but I suggest having them change spark plugs at the same time. In my past experiences, they won't charge labor to replace them seeing as you're already giving them a few hundred dollars in labor. Or I've just gotten lucky with it every time? A good relationship with your mechanics does go a long way.

RX330inFL

I wouldn't necessarily disagree with your statement. It brings up a good point. However, much like all the rest of this I would want to see a quote for the work beforehand. Like double charging for the labor on the water pump and timing belt work as seen by some of the quotes received for such work, shops do like to bury charges to obfuscate what they are charging for what.

neelnaik

They definitely like burying charges. I suppose that is how they make their money. But yes, make sure you know what you are being charged for, and make sure they are only doing the work you authorize them to. I have heard lots of stories of shops (dealers included) of doing little things like changing out your air filters without your permission to make a quick buck. You try to unsuccessfully refute it and you're still stuck paying for something you didn't want or need done.

01LEXPL

iTrader: (10)

Bingo, I did it all when I was getting a TB done. I had spark plugs, since the intake manifold comes apart, i got a new gasket there, a new TB gasket, new serpentine belt, new PS belt. Anything and everything I could do, I did. Just to spend a few bucks now vs. a lot more later on [again?!]

It was over 800$ in labor and I had about 400$ worth of parts.

So they are on the money, the reason it's 400$ more is due to the nature of the job, the RX isn't an 'easy access car', so there is A LOT of removal [aka time] to get to these components.

My friend, who is my mech spent 8 hours on this job when I sent in my dad's RX.

750$ with parts/labor is good.

HokieCJ7

I understand that it makes sense to go ahead and replace the belts while doing the TB job, but what about the:
Cam & crank seals
Hydrolic Tensioner
Cam shaft position sensor

I have heard of some replacing these items at the same time, but is it necessary, or would it potentially save me money doing this now vs. later?

Also, it looks like the extended TB kit from Sewell includes the 2 idler pulleys and seals. I assume that the pulleys and hydrolic tensioners are different parts- is that right?