soarer129

Hi all I know there has been a few discussions about timing belts on es 300 however I have just purchased a es ]300 2002 yr with 78000 ks on clock and was wandering should i have the belt changed because of its age even thou it has not done the ks
would be grateful for some advice on this matter

ES300NZ

It depends on how flush you are with cash. If you don't mind spending a bit to step ahead of possible issues I'd do the whole thing, belt, water pump, tensioner, idlers, and both cam seals, and crank seal. If you have a vvti engine (I think you do), you could also throw in new OCV's (one per cam).

Might as well do the cam cover seals, and spark plug seals, and new spark plugs, a new air filter. An oil change, and new filter would be a good idea. I like to replace the brake pads at the time of purchase, and have all four disk's skimmed so I know the brakes are perfect.

I'm pretty **** retentive about preventative maintenance though, so that's just me. The rule for timing belts is something like 100,000km's, or 5 years.

Oro

My opinion is not "by the book," but matches what I've seen doing belts for two decades.

a) Barring other circumstances, do the belt at the indicated mileage.

b) If the vehicle is operated in harsh conditions or hard use, do it by time regardless of mileage.

That would be significant periods of excessive heat (extreme summers, particularly dry, too), or majority stop/go driving, etc. Most belts under "normal" use come off at the indicated interval looking just great barring one of the above, regardless of age.