1998 Camry an "Interference" Engine?

no, you'll just be stuck by the side of the road waiting for a tow truck. $300 later you'll be just fine.

I figured that. I'm not trying to avoid the job, just wondering if I need to jump through hoops to make it happen or if I could actually schedule it and take the risk...

Thanks for the (possibly sarcastic) answer that gave me the info I needed.

Joe in Northern, NJ - V#8013-R

Currently Riding The "Mother Ship"

You did not say which engine is in your 1998 Camry. According to Gates (see

In my opinion, if you have the V-6 engine and the timining belts goes, you will have significant problems (most likely one or more bent valves). If you have a four cylinder engine, a broken timing belt will just result in your engine being temporaily non-running. Now if the timing belt breaks at an inconventient moment for either engine, bad things can happen.

Any particular reason why you just don't get it replaced now? Toyota recommends replacing it at 90,000 mile intervals.

Ed

It's the 4 cyl. And scheduled...

no sarcasm here Joe. I own a 97 Camry 4-cyl with 120K miles, I'm not having the timing belt replaced anytime soon....and I'm not really worried about it. Noone likes breaking down and getting towed, but since there's a better than 50-50 chance the timing belt will survive to the end of the car's useful life, I'll take that risk.

Yeah, non-interference. Consider getting a "package deal" that includes the water pump, cam/crank seals, oil pump seal, tensioner spring, idlers, and drive belts. For instance, they don't have to charge labor for the timing belt because for the water pump the cover and belts are already off.

I typically would replace the following:

Has the quality of the belts really gotten that much better? My last Camry had close to 300,000 on it... Blew the belt once and got stuck on the highway... Had an easy answer for a tow at that time so it was no problem... But this car is a daily driver and has my wife and kids in it so I'm goign to do it ASAP as far as our schedule goes.

Joe in Northern, NJ - V#8013-R

Currently Riding The "Mother Ship"

GREAT post. Thank you.

You exemplify what the newsgroups used to be - ultra helpful, ultra kind places where people actually went to discuss the matters at hand... Oh how I sometimes long for those days again.

Again, thank you (and others) who have great info.

$500 is a good price for that work. I have actually replaced several belts on cars that were classified as interference engines and they ran fine afterwards. I guess it just depends on when it breaks.

Well, in 1999, the 3.0 V6 is NOT NOT NOT an interference engine. I hardly think that they changed it in one year.

I distinctly recall looking up this for a 98 Camry V6 (which is the car I own) a few years ago on the Gates website, and it was listed as non-interference. I don't know which is correct (the old or new website), but I would suspect that new chart is wrong. Most cars that have interference engines have timing chains, not belts.

I don't believe that that's true. Honda has used belts on its interference engines, as has Volvo. They aren't exactly reckless in their engineering (although Volvo doesn't always think things out well) so I doubt that they are alone.