Bgw70

Well I guess it is my turn to do the Timing belt and...
Tensioner
idler pully
tensioner pulley
water pump
thermostat
upper and lowers hoses
Serpentine belt
And possibly spark plugs
valve cover gaskets
transmission filter

We began the project this morning after some coffee and like someone else said, there sure a tremendous amount of bolts and covers to remove!
The sensors on this car are nothing I have ever seen!
I will post some pics in the next box!
Note how we used a breaker bar and the starter to quickly and easily loosen the crank bolt. It was literally one small tap of the starter to break it loose.

Bgw70

This is our homemade toyota special tool used to hold the crank. It will be used to help tighten the crankshaft bolt




















I will clean out the throttle body before reassembly is complete.








This is how we loosened the crankshaft bolt, just one small tap of the starter and it was loose.








The radiator will be rinsed inside and out!














The puller on the harmonic balancer after the crank bolt was removed.



We used compressed air to dry everything off, it worked very well!

We are finished for the day...more tomorrow!

jzwu

Interested to know the year/mileage of your SC430 and how the old timing belt looked.

Bgw70

This is a 2002 with 64k miles. The belt looked fine! No cracks or anything. We are doing this to have that extra assurance everything should be good to go when we take it on a roadtrip.
The guy I purchased the car from did not provide any maintenance records. With said, I have been replacing everything that is broken or unknown.
The parts are inexpensive and I am doing the work, but the piece of mind is worth it all!

Helogadget

As far as the maintenance records go, have you tried searching your VIN at http://drivers.lexus.com/lexusdrivers/home ? I just purchased a 2002 SC430 and was able to find out a lot about what has been done to my car at dealerships its whole life. If you already know this, my apologies. :-)

Bgw70

A big thanks for the tip! I did this early on and found records up to to 35k, then nothing. To be honest he really did not bring the vehicle in for normal maintenance, he just brought it in for warranty issues.
I can say that the car now has maintenance records! ;-)

Helogadget

My records were pretty consistent up until around 2005 and then there was a big gap until 2011. Seems they had a rash of Evap Canister CELS and TPMS sensor issues with mine. It seems like they finally got them all ironed out...I hope!

Bgw70

BTW, welcome to the SC430 world Helo! Congratulations on the purchase of a fine looking SC430!

So far I have not had any issues with the Evap Canister but I do know that problems with them can be caused by over filling the gas tank. The owners manual says to stop filling the car when the fuel dispenser clicks.

As for the TPMS sensors, I do not know the status of mine, they may be disabled. I will find out very soon when I go to have new wheels and tires installed. I plan to have the old sensors moved from the old wheels to the new wheels, then they will sync the sensors to the car again.

Helogadget

Thanks BGW! Glad to be here. I loved my SC400, but I must say, with the 430, it feels more like lust. lol

Yeah, I think, from what I can gather, some of the evap hoses had to be replaced.

I am taking her to the shop this AM to have them do a good thorough inspection to ensure I don't have any little gotchas waiting to bite me. It has 189k on the odo, so just want to be sure. I am expecting motor mounts and possibly some bushings in the front end to need replacing at the very least. Hopefully, they won't find anything more serious than that.

Bgw70

Great idea, I replaced the motor mounts and tranny mount. The MMs had rips but the tranny mount was fine. My local Lexus dealer matched the on line price and it was about $200 w/tax.

I also had a four wheel alignment performed. It was out of tolerance, it drives so much better now! No more pulling to the right.

Well, coffee is finished, time to go finish the timing belt job! Wish me luck and Lord please help me do this correctly!!!

Helogadget

Good luck! You are braver than I, doing that timing belt! Looks good so far, hoping it will be a breeze for you.

bacardi11

iTrader: (1)

Bgw
great right up

Helogadget

BGW, I just looked again at your pics, and maybe I am confused but it looks like your new belt is reversed. Shouldn't the L be on the right and the R be on the left?

taisho

I know every shop is different, but what would a rough estimate be to get my belts replaced along with my water pump? I bought my used 2003 SC430 used with about 50k on it at the time and it now has 77k miles. I'm not sure if the previous owner did any kind of that maintenance.

Bgw70

And now the final pictures of the reassembly process...we should be good to go for awhile now...next on the list are the tires and wheels.
I am putting off the trans filter, spark plugs and valve covers gaskets for now.