Ray: Oh, I agree wholeheartedly that I should not wait too long. I don't travel that much; and, I won't have the money for my local Toyota agency to replace the timing belt until early January
Happy Holidays, Keith Lee
If I were you, I would inspect the belt and if it looks OK, then just wait until 90K miles. The odds of your engine running as well as it does now are less than 50-50 after a timing belt change. Of course if your engine runs poorly now, maybe you should change it.
Why would a new timing belt make the engine run poorly compared to before the work was done?
The timing belt determines the engine "timing". It is very difficult to get it exactly right, and some mechanics are lazy or poorly trained. Plus, once your engine has 8 years of normal wear, then sometimes setting the timing with a new timing belt reveals problems or inconsistencies with older parts in the engine.
Let me give you an analogy: Suppose you have 2 keys for your car, but you only use one of them. The key that is used and the lock exhibit wear after 8 years of use, but they wear together. Then after 8 years if you try to use the 2nd key (in brand new condition) then you will find that it does not work well in the 8 year old lock. (Please don't tell me that a lock and key is not the same as a timing belt--you need to look up the definition of analogy).
If you search Google groups archives, you will find many people complain that there engine does not run as well after a timing belt change.
So my advice applies to you, assuming your engine is non-interference (which I believe is correct since it is the same engine as my 98 Camry V6).
I disagree with that one.. Maybe with sloppy mechanics, but it's not hard to properly set up a timing belt. In all the ones I've done, I couldn't tell any difference at all in how they ran before vs after. But I am careful in setting up the timing marks. I'll line them up perfectly before taking the belt off, and not touch the gears when it's off. When I replace, I won't nail it down until it's exactly the same as it was when I took it off. This is not hard to do. I might have to do it over once or twice until it's perfect, but that is not hard to do. Even being one tooth off is enough to cause problems. But you have to be sloppy or lazy to have it one tooth off. Or in my opinion anyway.. If I put one one and it's one off, I'll redo it until it's right. You can tell by the marks if it's off or not if you carefully set it up before taking the old one off. Trust the timing marks! They don't lie. BTW, I always follow the tensioner settings
*exactly* as per the manual. Many engines vary a bit in that regard. Some vary a lot.. IE: most hondas set up the tensioner totally different than most of the toyotas. MK
I am quite sure you are the exception. Most mechanics would not do it over again several times if it was not exact (unless they are working on their own car).
"Mark A" wrote in message news:8OGaj.26027$ snipped-for-privacy@bignews8.bellsouth.net...
Mark, You are just to funny. Thanks for making me laugh out loud reading your post. It has been a long time since I have heard anything that wrong...
gosh, I'm still laughing. Oh and by the way. The first original key/lock for my
18 year old car got so worn down that it would not work unless I jiggled it and was so loose it would come out when the ignition was turned on and fall on the floor board. So I fixed the problem by switching to my second unused original key (the hide-a-key) that that works perfect in the locks because it's not worn out...Dan
I think most people have had the opposite experience from you. Not only in the ignition, but in the door and trunk locks.
They should. It sure doesn't take very long. The last one I had to do, I had to do twice before I nailed it down. Added maybe an extra 5-10 min? to make sure it was right.. If I had a mechanic change a belt, and it was not right, "I could tell instantly by the way it ran and timed", I'd make them do it over again. Sure, the base timing might shift just a tad when properly changing a belt, but it's not going to be much, and surely not enough to throw it out of the adjustable range for it to run correctly. The toyotas I've replaced belts on changed very little, but the belts I replaced were not totally shot yet. Actually, the last one I did was ok, but I changed it anyway cuz I was in there to change a water pump.. IE: the reverse of my "timing belt/water pump at one time" theory.. :/ On that one, I don't even think I had to adjust the base timing much at all. To me, there is no excuse for sloppy work on a fairly simple job that is mostly labor costs... The belt itself is cheap.. And most get 500-600-700 bucks a pop if they change the water pump and seals also.. I'm not sure what the dealer charges. I'd sure expect a dealer to get it right, and they should, being they do so many of them. If they didn't, I'd bring it back. But.. I do my own for my cars.. So I know it's going to be right, if I have to restring it 8 times to get it that way. MK
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