Hello fellow LS400 owner,

I have a 1998 Lexus LS400 that I purchased back in May, the car has about 81K miles on it currently. since I have no idea if timing belt has been changed I went ahead and did that about 3 weeks ago.

I took this car to a say mechanic that I just met after being referred to by a good friend. now I was there during the whole job and he seemed like he struggled a bit to put the belt correctly as it kept slipping out of timing. when done and finally was able to put it back, the line on the belt seemed to be off by a tooth, but seemed to be off on all three gears.

now my question is I am not sure if this guy did it right or not. the car see to drive fine and took it for a radiator flush right after and that shop didnt say anything about it. I have been driving it for 3 weeks now everyday, if there was an issue wouldnt it have showed up by now ? if not, what are the symphoms of a timing belt not replaced correctly ?

I went ahead and replaced timing belt, idler, thermostat and water pump as well. Please advise as I am really worried about this thing and don't know if I could cough up another $700 to get it re-done.

Thanks to all of you.

 

on your car?
the engine chewing itself to pieces would be your first clue.... given the '95-00 LS400s are interference engines.

 

wouldn't I get some kind of sympthom that this is happening if there is ? seems like it drives allright ! especially that I have been driving it for over 3 weeks now

 

Like PureDrifter said, ls400 engines from 95 on were interference. Meaning that the pistons and valves are placed in such a way that if the timing is off, they will hit eachother or "interfere". Pistons hitting valves will quickly destroy your engine. If your engine is running fine, by anyones standards, I would assume the timing is ok.

Symptoms of timing being off?
idk, valves being sheared off or atleast bent.
Either way, it would be very noticable. By ear and performance.

3 weeks later and your car runs fine. You have nothing to worry about.

 

Yeah if your running fine after 3 weeks then your probably good to go.

 

Thank you guys for your replies, next thing I will do is put some new Shocks on that baby, I am excited about that

 

Yes, you're fine.

If you were off by several teeth, the valves would be hitting the pistons and you would have engine damage.

If you were off by one tooth, the car would run badly and you'd be able to tell something was wrong.

Since it runs fine, it must be right.

And yes - if all 3 marks are on or all are off by the same amount (all 3 being one tooth off, as you said), it is fine. Even if you line it up perfectly to start, they will all be off on the next time around since the number of teeth on the belt is not divisible by the number of teeth on the pulleys.

 

i believe you could have done a radiator flush when you did the water pump eh?

 

here is the key to your situation: "the belt seemed to be off by a tooth, but seemed to be off on all three gears"
if it was off the same "tooth" on all three gears, it would still be in sync. so, dont worry about it. seems like no one but oldskewel caught that.

 

billydpowe, oldskewel....that makes perfect sense. if they are all off by the same amount it should be allright, this is my first time doing a timing belt so I really worry I if I screw it up. and just wanted to make sure this is something that if you dont dont do right, it would show up more or less right away and be obvious, in case I needed to re-do it or something, which would NOT be fun at all....
Timmy, I did do a radiator flush after that...

 

to clarify, if all the marks are off one tooth (in the same direction), it's the belt that's off one tooth, the timing's fine

 

If I remember correctly there have been reports where if the timing is out the engine management light has come on due to a conflict of information between the crankshaft sensor and the camshaft sensors.
So if there is no EML light on it would seem to confirm the timing is correct.