I don't care for timing belts or engines with gigantic long timing chains.
Does timing belt vs chain influence your used car decisions?
- Thread starter Elkins45
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The vehicle in question is a 2003 RX300 with a 1MZ-FE. How difficult/expensive is it to replace? I don’t think I want to tackle the job myself.YES!!!!! Especially if it's interference
Timing belts are stupid, and the new ones in oil are even worse
Is the V6 Lexus an ES330? Because that has the 3MZ, which is interference. The earlier 1MZ also has a timing belt, but it's non-interference. How much more for the newer ES350 with the timing chain 2GR?
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Looks harder than my 5s-fe. Which took the better part of a day. Call this two? I think I saw a book time of 4 hours for the belt, 5 if doing water pump. Not sure what parts markup would be, but maybe $500 parts plus 5 hour labor, whatever shop time goes for there? easy grand I’d guess.
You have the exception that proves the rule - lucky you! I think my daughter's old Subaru was typical in terms of difficulty - not the easiest, not the hardest. Remove the radiator and a bunch of other stuff, replace the pulleys, tensioner, water pump, and the timing belt, put it all back together, fill with new coolant. I did it in one day, but it was an all day job.
I think replacing the timing belt is typically comparable to replacing the clutch in a stick shift.
I could 1 timing belt in the morning, and 1 in the afternoon. a clutch on a transaxle, pretty much a 1 day job.
It doesn't look like it is an exceptionally difficult job, but not quite as easy as a Honda J35 V-6 timing belt. Here is a video with no narration, but clearly shows all of the steps that must be performed and in what order. I'd tackle it in a heartbeat with an AISIN timing belt/water pump kit which costs about $230.
I have similar thoughts but if I've got to do it, I'd much prefer to diy replace a belt than a chain not least because with a chain the sprockets may need replacing too and with variable valve timing fitted they can be very expensive. Since some manufacturers have replaced dual row chains with single row, they are now less likely to last the life of the vehicle.
Doesn't make a difference. Changing a timing belt & water pump is not nearly as difficult as folks make it out to be. Time consuming? Sure. Hard? No.
I replaced my Traverse with the Pilot because the Traverse's timing chains were wearing out, and it was uneconomical to spend $3000 to fix something that was worth $1500 trade-in. The Pilot's timing belt I did myself, the Traverse would not have been a DIY since you have to drop to whole front end to get the engine out.
There is much, much more to a vehicle’s reliability than just the engine. I couldn’t care less about a belt vs chain or PI vs DI if the tranny is going to crap out at 100K miles… I’m fine with whatever works.
A lot of newer GM FWD stuff seems to just not be a good idea, period. Toyota seems to have drivetrains that can last roughly forever with minimal maintenance (at least in certain situations), GM ”time bombs” cost more than the plastic pile is worth…
even worse!
The SUV and minivan versions are even MORE difficult to work on than the sedans with the same engine
However, the 1MZ is non-interference, so you could put it off until it breaks if you really need to, if you have AAA
No, there are other things a lot more important to me than an easy weekend job once every 100,000 miles.
I like belts better. I can do a timing belt on my car in an afternoon easily, and the old Volvos are even easier. The one timing chain i did took like a week (i was like 15 and worked on it after school) and I had to remove the exhaust manifold to get to the chain driven water pump
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I agree with this, it's pretty far down the list of things I worry about.
Timing belt replacements have gotten exceedingly expensive unless you DIY. It was a real factor for me in buying my current Acura. I had my Ridgeline timing belt done at 9 years and 74K miles. I don't intend to do it again.
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Yeah, but that’s just a handful of known bad engines. I’m talking about comparing engines with 80-90k scheduled replacement intervals to engines where it’s a reasonable expectation the chain will last the life of the vehicle. In one case you know the expense is coming even if nothing goes wrong.
I still don't like the idea of something so critical being cheaped out on and needing a rather difficult replacement job.
But as we've learned with a lot of newer DI timing chain engines recently .... they're also having issues.
At least belt vehicles are serviceable, I guess. You don't have to drop the engine out of your Passport to change the timing belt, but you have to drop the engine out of your Traverse to change the timing chains.
But as we've learned with a lot of newer DI timing chain engines recently .... they're also having issues.
At least belt vehicles are serviceable, I guess. You don't have to drop the engine out of your Passport to change the timing belt, but you have to drop the engine out of your Traverse to change the timing chains.
We used to prefer chains as they generally outlasted the car. That's no longer the case and a belt may be cheaper to replace ever 100 k or so.
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