does the 2001 es300 have an interference or non-interference engine?

 

It's non-interference. If someone says otherwise they will be wrong

 

go to https://www.gates.com/search-by-vehicle and enter the vehicle information.
I check yours and it does not seem to be an interference design.

 

Thanks to PFB and mcomer for your reply. Lots of disagreements on this on other sites.

 

Regardless of whether it's interference or not, if you plan on driving the car till the belt snaps, you are still risking engine damage.

 

Thanks to crwys for your info. I was just curious because when I bought the car I was told it was non-interference and recently a mechanic told me it was an interference engine and I should change the belt soon, even though I changed it about 40,000 miles ago.

 

I was told in 99 it became an interference motor due to the VVTI by both the Lexus dealer mechanic and the independent shop I use owned by a Toyota mechanic. Strange how years later we can’t defintiely have an answer.

One side of me says that the mechanics would of course say they are interfence to scare you into changing the belt, but I have seen several ESs and RXs that had snapped belts that required either extreme engine work or a whole new engine all together. Maybe check Toyota forums and see what they have to see as they are more active and have many more members.

 

+1

And risking your life. If the belt snaps, the engine stalls, and the vehicle stops in the middle of the highway, you are risking your life.

 

No problem. As you can see there are still debates to this day that the engine is interface or non interface. I just avoid the debate now my stating you are risking engine damage either way, because you are.

I do find it really odd though that the mechanic wants the belt changed at only 40k miles. I believe the Lexus recommendation is 6 years or 90k miles, 120k for the water pump.
What I can also say is the chance of the belt breaking appears to be minimal, so after 90k or 6 years you can use your best judgment to decide how far you want to push it.

 

My daughter's '00 is non-interference. Timing belt (the second or third one) let go at 201K. Shop replaced it, helicoiled threads for the tensioner or idle pulley and the car is now at 215K.

 

They make a couple different 1mz-fe engines. Vvt are higher output which are for a fact interference engines while the non vvt are non interference engines so becareful who you listen to. There's always morons who think they know that are totally wrong.