Avalon 1997: Timing Belt replacement?

I did a pretty good inspection on a 98 Avalon that I didn't buy from a Toyota dealer. It was a one owner with 100,000 miles and the belt had not been replaced. I called several indy shops and all said it didn't need it till about a 120,000 miles, one shop said he wouldn't do because they didn't like working on the 6 cylinder engine but would be glad to do a 4. The dealer's service manager recommended doing it right away for $360.00. The dealer's used car dept. refused to have their service department do it but would reduce the purchase price by $360.00. When I asked them why they wouldn't they gave me a bunch of double talk that implied they would have warranthy issues. After thinking it over for a while I decided not to make the purchase because they wouldn't do the belt. I assumed they didn't want to because other issues might show up and that would eat up their profits. But if I did it, I would have to shoulder the risk and I'll bet they would have found other issues to run up the bill. Do some checking but I think you'll be safe to about 100,000. Why waste the time and money, the engine is a non-interference design so belt failure will not drive pistons into the valves. It sounds like stop and go is hard on belts and you don't do that so if your an educated gambler you can take an educated risk. I'm curious if you've had many problems with the car? How about the front end? I'm still looking for a good one, let me know if you see one.

The manual for my 2000 Avalon indicates it should be changed at 90K. Henry may be right and you could drive the thing for many more miles on the original belt but having been stranded twice in Camrys (actually my wife was the one stranded) with broken belts, I would get it changed. On the four cylinder Camry I changed the water pump at the same time and replaced the drive belts. You'll have peace of mind and the car will seem to run better (just like it does after you wash and wax it!). Good luck. jor

"Anton Spaans" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@speakeasy.net...

"Henry Kolesnik" wrote in news:%Uw4e.1839$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr12.news.prodigy.com:

My '97 now has 46,000 miles and after reading pros and cons I'm just going to let the belt replacement slide as long as I can. I had a complete physical done on it at the dealer a few months ago, letting them gig me for $500 or so but doing lots of flushing, plugging, lubing, injecting, battery, etc. and it runs really nice now.

Only problems I ever had was the front struts squeaking, dealer never replaced anything, only lubed them which didn't last. Headlights flickered for about 6 months at speed then went away. Aligned 3 times. Dash lights got very dim, so I decided to replace all the lights in the car, every one of them except dash. Amazingly dash lights afterwards are back to normal brightness. Sometimes it takes a few turns of the starter to get going but it's done that since new.

Other than that just a couple of squeaks and rattles, gets 20ish in town,

Time for new tires, shocks as it's riding hard now but uncertain which direction to go there, so much conflicting information. I just want to find a place that I can drive in and drive out done and riding smooth and quiet. Not easy with the Avalon unless it's the dealer$$$$.

I don't have had as many problems with my car as the other poster 'Unk'. No starting problems whatsoever, in warm or cold weather (i'm from Boston).

Also, like Unk's, my front-struts were squeaking... they were replaced (cost about $500 in total). Of course, that happened *just* when the 3 years extended warranty was up (i bought my Avalon second-hand)!

The rest was just routine maintenance (brake pads, fluid replacements, inspections, etc) issues.

Only one thing now: My powersteering rack needs to be replaced at some point. It leaks from the seals on the driver's side. But as long as you keep the powersteering fluid up to level, nothing can go wrong. But at some point, i need it replaced, i think. :) This seems to be a common problem among Avalons... (did a search on the Net).

I think i'll replace the belt (& waterpump, since they're doing that amount of work anyway...) at 90000 miles then and have them inspect the belt at the next maintenance.

Thanks!

Toyota requires that you replace your timing belt at 90k miles. If the dealer is telling to replace it at 60k, do they have any reason for this? If the belt looks worn, I would have it replaced, no questions asked. If for some reason it were to break, you are no longer under warranty. The cost of replacing the belt is way lower than the damage that could be caused to your car otherwise... $300 versus $4000. Also, if you do decide to replace the timing belt, consider replacing the water pump as well, since they will have to remove it to access the belt.

Hope this helps.

The belt can't be inspected without major work, same as replacing. This is a non-interference engine. The valves won't hit the pistons when the belt breaks. Water pump should not have to be changed if antifreeze was changed regularly and it doesn't leak.

Hi ggal, When i scheduled my 60.000 miles scheduled-maintenance, the dealer said that i should to replace the timing-belt as well. I said that the owner's manual states that that is not necessary at 60.000 miles. Instead, i asked them to take a quick look at the belt when they would be doing the major scheduled-maintenance. If the belt would look suspicious, i asked them to call me back in order to (maybe) schedule a timing-belt replacement as well.

The scheduled-maintenance was done without any call from dealer about the timing-belt. It looked fine, they said (as far as they could see without doing major extra work)... but they still said that it was 'common pratice' to replace it at 60000 miles.... ah well.

Nope, non-interference engine: The worst that can happen is that my car would stop in the middle of the highway or in the middle of nowhere :=)

-- Anton.

How can they look at the timing belt without major work?

"Anton Spaans" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@speakeasy.net...

They inspected it during my major 60.000 miles scheduled maintenance (costed me $450). I don't know how they did it, but i guess they can take a quick peek at it...?

If there doesn't seem to be any apparent damage to it, you should be OK. Toyota recommends replacement @ 90k miles.