Timing Belt Roulette

[Jeffrey Davis]

I just bought a 98 LS 400 with 89,500 K. I plan to have the belt and associated parts replaced next Friday. However I need to make a 1300 mile trip this week. Do I drive it or my "backup' car?

[dcfish]

I just bought a 98 LS 400 with 89,500 K. I plan to have the belt and associated parts replaced next Friday. However I need to make a 1300 mile trip this week. Do I drive it or my "backup' car?

Drive it, Your probably good until 120,000.

[wandawoods]

yup, delaying timing belt change on VVTi enginge of 98+ LS over 90K, it's roulette alright! let's just say you have 1 in 6 chances to get your valves destroyed. I've been thru that with a 93 mercede 400sel I used to own, it costed me over $4K to get it running again! the lesson is that you just don't take any chances with interference-type engine. the call is yours, though!

[LexusLooker]

Hey Jeffrey, welcome to the club. Well, it really depends on what your backup car is!! :P I agree that you don't want to go too long before changing the belt on an interference engine like this one because of the potential for huge damage (whew, we ALL agree that this is an interference engine..ha), but you're talking about going from 89,500 to 90,800 miles...800 miles over the limit. From my limited experiece with Toyota products, they appear to be built with plenty of leeway. 800 miles seems to be an insigificant number of miles. I see over and over and over that people delay their changes to over 100K miles and are fine. An indie mechanic I'm considering says to wait until 100K. I'm not in the camp of "squeeze every last revolution out of the belt" at all - I will replace mine at 90 or 100K on my 98 - but a few miles over the limit shouldn't hurt. Take your trip, enjoy the car, get it fixed next week.

[1990LS400]

I agree with LexusLooker. Waiting a few miles past 90K for the timing belt change should not be a worry unless a huge amount of the car's life has been spent with the engine idling without racking up miles.

[blake918]

I agree with the others. Place your bet and spin! LOL

[dcfish]

I agree with the others. Place your bet and spin! LOL

http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...topic=25946&hl=

[rvgraham]

Jeffrey, it's not like Toyota could implant some auto destruct mechanism in a timing belt to make it shred itself at 91,000 miles... They have to do mtbf studies and try to set a safe point at some *fraction* of when they think the belt might go. Unless the vehicle has been used a New York taxi cab or some other ridiculously harsh kind of duty, you'll have loads of life past the "recommended" manitenance time. My '99 has 97,000 miles and I'll be taking many long trips between now and 120,000 or so when I plan to start to think of changing it. Then again, I like to push my luck when parting with hard earned cash comes in, and yes, I know the cost of an interference engine losing a timing belt at 2500 rpm...

Many other posts here and at that *other* lexus forum have pointed out that no one has ever heard of any LS400 timing belt snapping ...Ever! Some guy somewhere claims his broke at 70,000, but others say that was because of some other engine torturing incident that stopped the engine cold in its tracks and overstressed the belt. A brand new timing belt can snap given the right stress. My apologies ahead of time if someone flames this post, I won't be takling the time to reply.

Of course, I'm not made of money, and owning even a used LS is a stretch for me... If you can afford to pop over to the dealer and lay down $1k+++ for a belt change, why not do it?

I'm sure a lot of naysayers will chime in now and tell you I'm steering you down foolish lane, but again, does anyone really think that Toyota is putting out a car with a recommended maintenance item at the actual mileage that it's *going* to fail???

Bob

[Kennyr]

I have seen many belts break over the years. Sure its a gamble, like most things in life. But this is a no brainer. This is a bad place to roll the dice. The odds are not good when the pistons can hit the valves. Gamble when you own a Gen 1, not 2 & 3.

[jc19907]

Great stuff RVGraham!

I think these are solid points here. And to add - If you're not sure how the car was driven before and you've got little to no service history. I'd service that belt sometime soon. If you plan to delay this service, just remember what is hard on cars! Starting the car and driving fast. If you are agressive with your driving; now is not the time to do this. Shifts in your transmission apply jolts of force to your belts - I.E. flooring your pedal at low RPM to high. Also, try and limit the times you start and drive your car. Starting it, puts jolting torque and force on all your belts. A reduction of these forces will help your belt last longer. If the car is not tuned or you use bad gas, the missing of fire etc. will cause your belts to slow and speed up quickly; hence, kinking the belts just slightly each time it happens. This can also cause accelerated wear. 2cts - I'm getting mine done @ 100K.

[backwoods lex]

I have an 2000 ES which has a timing belt cover that you can remove with a socket easily. You may want to check to see if the LS has the same thing.

I recently had my timing belt changed at 90,300 miles along with the water pump and drive belts. I got the used parts back and the belt was in great shape. Check the cover. I think its an easy do-it-your-selfer. Good luck.