Timing Belt Replacement - Time or Miles???

[tundra.gator]

I have a 2000 Tundra that I bought new in 2000 but do not drive very much. It has only 39k miles on it.

With so few miles, replacing the timing belt had not even crossed my mind but then it occurred to me, hey, this truck is 8 years old!!

Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Should I really be very concerned that the belt is 8 years old but only has 39k miles on it? I don't want to spend the money unnecessarily. Should I do it now or is it safe to wait and put more miles on it?

Thanks for you input.

-Gator

[Matador98]

Originally Posted by tundra.gator

I have a 2000 Tundra that I bought new in 2000 but do not drive very much. It has only 39k miles on it.

With so few miles, replacing the timing belt had not even crossed my mind but then it occurred to me, hey, this truck is 8 years old!!

Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Should I really be very concerned that the belt is 8 years old but only has 39k miles on it? I don't want to spend the money unnecessarily. Should I do it now or is it safe to wait and put more miles on it?

Thanks for you input.

-Gator

Not living in the desert helps you, but I would probably change it. I would change mine, but I'm at 87K, so it's going to happen this summer. This has been discussed heavily on IH8MUD, regarding the land cruiser (same engine) and guys that have low mileage '98, '99, 00, and '01 land cruisers have been finding heavy cracking in their belts at 7,8 years, and the consensus is to change it between 7 or 8 years since that is when Toyota may be expecting owners to do it assuming an average of 12,000 miles a year driven (90,000/12,000 = 7.5 years).

So, it's really your call. The humidity will help, versus being in the desert, but my advise, based on owning both an LC and Tundra and surfing their respective forums (and doing the LC, which had a pretty cracked belt) would be to consider changing it in the next 6 months or so. Hopes that helps.

[LEOCOR]

I have a 2000 Tundra that I bought in April of '06 from a friend. It had 117,000 highway miles on it and ran perfectly. I went through his maintenance records and I could not find where he had the timing belt changed anywhere, so I approached him and his response was "What timing belt?" I was horrified, so I went and did it myself.

Before I started, a mechanic friend recommended that I change out the water pump at the same time, so I ordered a belt and water pump and proceeded to do the job. The old belt looked like new, nary a crack or anything, but the water pump had these pink crystals oozing out of the seal. I did change out everything, including all fluids as well. I am glad I did it, but I won't even think of doing it again until the truck has 200,000 miles on it.

The truck always is and always was garaged at all times when not being used.

Leo

[ricktor]

I think Matador is right,its for your own risk,it happened to me on our first truck and i did not realize it, and if in case you have to change it some auto parts resources tips that usually it's the guides that need to be replaced not the actual belt. If you do a quick pressure test on it you can tell if it's been taken care of, or possibly diagnose a problem before it actually has a problem. If the compression is high/good, and all cylinders equal, than it's probably been taken care of.

[canddmeyer]

My Accord has a timing belt. Recommended change is 7yrs or 105,000 miles, whichever comes first. We hit 7yrs at 38,000 and had it changed then. $450+ for the belt and water pump change is a lot cheaper than a new engine.

[mototayota]

I changed the timing belt myself, last year, on my 2000 Tundra after it had aquired around 140,000 miles... it looked brand new. I can't remember 100 percent, but I think there may be a peep hole or two that you can look at the belt without taking everything off; if so just take a look and see if it is dry-rotted.