Hi,

the owner of a car I will buy says that it has a timing chain, is that possible on an 05 LS 430 ?

Thanks !!

 

Totally impossible if the car doesn't have an engine that was swapped in from another car

 

its the original engine but he says it was originally made with a timing chain. is there any way to verify this if i got the vin number ?

 

he says his mechanic looked and saw a timing chain but it seems impossible that this car has a chain so maybe the mechanic made an error which seems strange.

 

No need to verify it's a moot point. The owner is simply misinformed.

As Striker said, if the car has the engine it rolled off the factory floor with it definitely, without question, has a timing BELT.

 

If he is lying and made that up, consider that anything else he said about the car is also a lie.

 

Factory 2005 LS430 engine has a timing belt. Here is a YouTube video (not mine) on how you can quickly differentiate the two engine types.

 

The entire UZ V8 family of engines was a belt driven system. If you have any from of UZ in there it has a belt

 

thanks, you guys are awesome !

stay safe

 

Look for other “red flags” from this owner before buying this car

 

He is telling you this, not because it has a timing chain, but because he knows it has a timing belt that is past it's change by date..and will cost about $1,500 to perform necessary timing belt/waterpump service.

Obtain an estimate for timing belt service from dealer and present it to him as part of price negotiation.

Alternatively, if seller is unaware it actually has a timing belt, then he doesn't know when, if ever it was changed, as a basis to justify your receiving a price reduction.

Interference engine will destroy itself if timing belt breaks.

 

Id just move on. Some people are just ignorant and incredibly stubborn.

All I would tell him is to find a new mechanic, because the engine does not have a timing chain and i would question the work of his mechanic at that point.

 

I remember once I asked if the Honda I was interested was 4 or 6 cyl. Seller said it's a V4. I decided not to make any wise comments and realized this was a snake oil salesman, who would likely one day sell mattresses once the internet got invented.

 

Put the VIN in and check what maintenance has been done.
https://drivers.lexus.com/lexusdrivers

 

fix.t........