Just recently hit that mark where with every mile the notion that a timing belt break is nagging at my conscience. Probably will not be able to get it changed until next month so should i be extra cautious about the type of driving im doing or do you think that doesnt matter at this point? Also thinking about doing the water pump at the same time to save on labor or should it just be inspected?

 

The timing belt is a MAJOR job. I recommend that you do everything that's under the covers while it's apart,water pump,tensioners,oil seals...

It's a lot of labour to strip it back down again if the pump fails in a few thousand more miles.


Justin...

 

I recently saw an episode of a UK auto repair show on changing the timing belt on some car. The host said the water pump should also be changed because the added tension of a new timing belt wil put additional stress on the old water pump and it is more likely to start leaking.

 

You should also probably flush all your fluids also...

 

You don't have to drive differently, I routinely see LS400s and LS430s for sale with 100, 110, 125k for sale with no timing belt service. Mine was done at 92.

It is silly however, to not do the WP while you're in there. Yea, yea... I know its a Toyota part and it should last along time, but the next T-belt replacement won't be until 180k miles and its certainly doubtful it will last THAT long. So at some point, you're gonna be duplicating your work.

 

+1 do the recommended parts swap, WP any idlers, seal/gaskets and like. Enough of the 400's have gone beyond the 90K interval and I don't recollect a discussion of a breaking TB. That's not to say it doesn't happen but most of us have done the TB in 90-125K miles.

 

It would be interesting to see at least one post on the forum from an owner with a broken timing belt. I have not seen one to date.

 

Hi SSrfr -

Think all procrastinated maintenance is a roll of the dice. Most of us aren't going to put more than 175k on our rides so unless it's a monetary situation which holds you back, why wait as you're only gonna replace it once, giving you an additional 90k miles of insurance against a catastrophic failure and alleviating the nagging 'what if' ...

You're obviously conscientious about maintenance and concerned about the consequences so my vote would be to do it asap.

Good driving -

Will and the Fur Crew

 

How much did you guys (for those of you who did do a timing belt already) pay? My dealer is recommending a timing belt change due to the fact that the car is 6 yrs old already (though I don't think age is really a huge factor...is it??). My SA said the parts cost $550, I'm assuming labor is going to be a ton more since it's such an intricate job.

 

I've seen one. Back when I worked at a toyota/lexus dealer the lexus side of the house threw out a VVT 1UZ that had thrown a belt and had smashed valves,wrecked a chamber on one the heads and had beaten up one of the pistons. They didn't rebuild it,just threw the whole thing into the scrap bin and bought in a brand new crate engine. I was driving a UCF11 at the time and took as much of it home as I could.


Justin...

 

What was the mileage? For some reason I thought the 1UZ in the LS400 was a non-interference engine.

 

You absolutely DO NOT need to do your timing belt yet. Even if you go by the time interval instead of the miles interval, Toyota/Lexus recommends 9 years as the break point. That doesn't mean they're going to fail at 9 years, so 6 years is waay too early and is just a money maker for the dealership.

 

Honestly,I don't remember as it was nearly 6 years ago now. I'm certainly no expert as I've not had a whole lot to do with them,but I was under the impression that the early Non-VVT engines were non-interference,and the later ones with higher compression were.

Justin...

 

Thanks for the heads up!

 

Anytime