willdogg

After owning our 04 RX330 for a year, I finally got the timing belt replaced. When we bought the vehicle last year, it had over 115K miles and the previous owner had not done it. When we got to 125K miles, I didn't want to put it off any longer (even though I waited till getting to 200K miles on my 99 Honda Civic before changing that timing belt). My wrencher (who specializes in Lexus/Toyota/Acura/Honda vehicles) finished it in 6 hours.

parts

timing belt
water pump
power steering belt
a/c compressor belt
coolant
also did an oil change

were around $240, the labor was $330…the total ($590) was about a little more than half of what Lexus stealerships here in the SF Bay Area charge. Now that wifey's car is setup for another 90K miles, it's time to pass on my Honda to soon-to-be licensed-to-drive kid, and time to start shopping a used IS250…woohoo!

jamodeo

iTrader: (1)

How did the old belt look? I'm curious.

-Joe

thomas1

That my friend is a smoking deal...I just did mine at 102k miles and the belt didnt look as good as my RX300 belt did, but suspect that the 400h with multiple millions of start and stop on the engine might put more stress on the belt. I too did wterpump and idlers, took me about same time, but I had a bad time with aligning rear cam....finally worked.

01LEXPL

iTrader: (10)

Right on! Just had this done on my dad's RX330.

I always get parts from Rockauto, cost me ~250$ shipped. For an AISIN kit [oem maker of Toyota parts outside of Denso] needed to get the hydraulic tensioner seperately, oh yeah cabin/air filter, alternator belt and 6 new OEM sparkplugs but all ordered from www.rockauto.com
Mileage was at 85k-ish

willdogg

Thomas-

Thanks man. I wish I had the patience, time, and tools to do my own wrenching, but props to you for DIY-ing it. If I can't do it myself, a good, honest mechanic is the next best thing.

Joe-

The old timing belt actually looked OK, if it was my vehicle, I might've pushed it another 20K, but since it's my wife's rig, I didn't want to take any chances.

Lex-

That's a good price. The CL member price on Sewell is for a timing belt/water pump kit is around $295, so $250 is pretty sweet. I'll check Rockauto for future parts purchases.