Timing belt, water pump and all that was done at 90K. I had it done by a local gas station mechanic with serious Toyota experience and more. The guy has a local reputation as very good. It took him more than a half day. The old timing belt looked fine, which is really meaningless. The water pump (bearing) was garbage which means the system was on the edge of disaster. New coolant of course went into the system at that time. My personal experience before silicone rubber- or whatever the current chemistry of belts and hoses- was that the working life of a hose was two summers. I changed them all in the spring every second year. If I missed then they would burst or break during the summer following the missed scheduled change. Every time.
Re: Belt and Hose Life
Apr 06, 2006
1 Replies
I'm not sure how they make the Toyota hoses, but they seem to last much, much longer than others. I keep checking for softness, cracking, swelling or any type of deformity that would warrant changing them but they all still look great and have had no problems. Once had a heater hose fail on my 1977 Toyota truck. That particular short wavy hose was hidden under the air cleaner. Once it failed I could see that it had ballooned up perhaps triple the normal size so if you saw something like that it would be a definite danger signal. The original equipment hoses are very high quality and last a long, long time. Personally, I do not replace them based solely on time or mileage, but on condition, and I'm generally very preemptive on maintenance. I periodically squeeze the hoses when cold to check internal integrity, but they're holding up just fine.
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