timing belt?

My son purchased a 1990 toyota camry a few years back with about 120,000 miles on it. Its the inline 4 sedan. He know has about 180,000 miles on it, and the vehicles gas mileage has dropped down from about 23 miles per gallon, to about 15 miles per gallon, about 70 percent heavy urban driving. Also, at the advice of some people on this group, he switched to hi test gas, because of a lot of knocking on acceleration. The hi test cured it. The mechanic we used, suggested changing out the timing belt. We have not done this yet on this car, and have no idea, when and if it was done before we got it over 60,000 miles ago, but we assume the car was well maintained, because it was almost pristine when we got it, from an elderly lady, who commuted to work with it from new hampshire, and had her car work all done by the dealership as called for. The seats even lacked brand new. So any recommendations if the timing belt could be the cause of it, and if not, should it be changed at this point anyway. The car runs just fine, just getting lousy gas mileage, have to use hi test, and its pep has gone away, but that could be of old age also. LOL

Thanks

Reply to
J.Lef
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It is due for a timing belt and most probably a tune up.

Reply to
badgolferman

If the timing belt were ever changed, there should be a sticker on the timing belt cover on the front of the engine (the front of the engine is on the passenger side of the car) noting the date and mileage when the T-belt was changed. If there is no sticker and the t-belt has never been changed, it should be changed soon. The factory recommendation is to change the T-belt every 60,000 miles but you can easily stretch that interval to 90,000 miles. At 180,000 miles, it is on borrowed time.

An old timing belt will not cause poor gas mileage. There are several possible causes of poor gas mileage, and since the poor mileage is accompanied by poor pep and pinging, I'd start with a tune-up with OEM ignition parts. The OEM platinum-tipped spark plugs are a little pricey but they have a 60,000 mile life span. A tune-up should include a check of ignition timing and advance, check the engine air filter, and condition of the transmission fluid. Check to make sure the tires are properly inflated. I recommend 4 or 5 PSI higher than the factory recommendation for better mileage. Make sure there are no restrictions in the exhaust system.

Have a competent technician check the performance of the O2 sensor. An O2 sensor that is performing marginally can cause poor gas mileage.

Reply to
Ray O

I agree with Ray's advice on getting more mileage out of your Camry, but you do need to know more about the timing belt issue. If you put that item off and don't replace it and it breaks, you'll be left beside the road as the engine can't run without the timing belt. Another word of advice on the Camry, when you get the timing belt replaced, also have the water pump and the timing belt idler pully replaced. Should the water pump ever fail, it's costs the same in labor to replace it as it would to replace the timing belt and that's not cheap.

J

Ray O wrote:

Reply to
Joey

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