All,

I have recently purchased a 2001 LS 430 UL with only 62k miles on the odometer. One owner, always garaged and serviced at a Toyota dealership.
The timing belt was replaced in 2012 at 52k miles. Since then, almost 9 years have passed with only an additional 10,000 miles driven.

I am aware that timing belt should be replaced ~9 years OR 70,000 miles.

I am planning to replace the timing belt within the next 2-3 years, just to be safe. But I would appreciate your advice as to when I should do it, sooner or later. It would be a shame to destroy the 3UZ.

Thanks

I've yet to see a timing belt break due to only age. Put in a JDM engine into a friends Toyota 3 years ago, claim was the engine had 40k miles that seemed accurate no leaks everything still shiny. Didn't touch the timing belt as it looked fine, car still driving no issues about 30k additional miles. Engine was a 1990 BTW.

Having said that, on an interference engine it's hard to justify taking a chance even if the risk is small. If it was my car I'd replace the belt so I could sleep soundly.

Congrats on the low mileage purchase!
No need to worry your belt is fine assuming the ancillary bearings tensioners etc are healthy. With only 62k miles I'd be confident everything is in excellent working order.
Time is somewhat of a factor with the belt itself but heat is the biggest enemy of bearings. Your car hasn't endured enough heat in 62k miles to compromise anything.
Just don't forget to have it serviced in a year or two...

I replaced the TB on my 2005 2 years ago when the car had about 59K on it. Even though the belt was technically 13 years old, it looked new. The tensioners looked new, the water pump looked new. It was definitely piece of mind to change those parts, but it could have gone much longer..

Here's a link to what I did...

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-...il-change.html

My car had the original timing belt when I bought it. It was a 2001 with 220k km. All the markings and text that was originally silk screened onto the belt wore off. It had no visible cracks and it still looked decent for a 20 year old belt. My serpentine belt on the other had, looked like **** and was ready to break.

Ditto for mine. Serpentine and tensioner had seen better days. Timing belt looked brand new.