Timing belt replacement

[Garth]

were $605, at my toyota dealer.
timing belt
water pump
serpentine belt
(is there another belt in there? I forget, and they'd mentioned something, but I think I got confused with the timing belt/serp. belt)
spark plugs
fresh antifreeze.
State inspection (17.50)
And, they're next door to me, so it's just a walk across the lawn to them. I thought this was reasonable. Originally, I'd asked for the idler's, but they said they were good, and rarely go bad... so I got $100 off the original 700 quote. It might have been one of those penny-wise/pound foolish decisions... but it's done now. My serpentine belt was squealing for the past 10-20k miles, so it's sounding good now. Only complaint on the work was, when I turned on my AC after starting the truck to leave, it started flashing... brought it back to the service writer, she had the head mechanic look at it, he knew immediately what it was. Ground wire on the AC unit hadn't been hooked back up... fixed in 2 min's. But, that did leave me with a slightly uneasy feeling (and they sent me a quality follow up letter that I listed this on) about the rest of the work, but it's running fine now 2 weeks later.

[Mike Donofrio]

Originally Posted by Rlockyer

Weekend?
Ouch... for $1000, it's easily worth it to DIY. Mine took only about 6 hours and total cost was $300 including 2 gallons of coolant.
It shouldn't take a weekend... unless you have the help of a couple of friends and a case of beer

Believe me, if I did it---it would take a weekend

That was the old Mike, the new Mike can't afford to have Toyota touch the truck at any cost and gets his hackles up when he sees any repair bill whatsoever.

I am at 130K miles now and will need to do it again next year sometime. Unless I am very wealthy, that'll be a DIYer.

[KFlash]

Now that I am ready to start, I have two last questions. As with most things, until you get to look at them, they seem a bit scary. I have a seal puller and sockets of all sizes. Are the crank and cam seals just a matter of prying out and tapping back in? Those that have done it please weigh in.

When using FIPG, do you just finger tight the connection until it sets and then torque it down?

[kathyricks]

Your 2002 truck is pretty new to need cam and crank seals. I'd wait until the 2nd timing belt change because prying them out is tough and you could scratch the crankshaft or camshaft and ruin them. I havn't worked on Tundra V8, but on other Toyotas the crank seal can be removed without prying by first removing the oil pump (complicated) and the cam seal can be removed without prying by removing the cam pulley and camshaft (complicated).

There are two types of FIPG. One for oil contact surfaces like the oil pan and one for coolant contact surfaces. Use the Toyota FIPG for oil contact surfaces and Permatex Grey for coolant contact surfaces. There is a Toyota FIPG for coolant surfaces but it comes only in big cartriges for $60 whereas the Permatex Grey comes in $6 tubes and Permatex claims it is a suitable replacement for the Toyota FIPG for coolant surfaces.

[Matador98]

Originally Posted by kathyricks

Your 2002 truck is pretty new to need cam and crank seals. I'd wait until the 2nd timing belt change because prying them out is tough and you could scratch the crankshaft or camshaft and ruin them. I havn't worked on Tundra V8, but on other Toyotas the crank seal can be removed without prying by first removing the oil pump (complicated) and the cam seal can be removed without prying by removing the cam pulley and camshaft (complicated).

x2. IMOP, you don't need to replace the seals unless they are leaking or look wet..at least based on what I have heard and red. The seals on my wifes '99 land cruiser were fine at 195K, so I didn't change them...so the seals ended up in the bottom of my parts drawer. I wouldn't do it unless they are "wet".

[KFlash]

Well folks...

I came home from work today and started in on the timingbelt/water pump replacement.

I have drained the radiator and block. Used 5/16 fuel line on the drain port on the motor (I only drained from the driver's side. Should I drain the Passenger's side also, or does one side do it?)

The radiator and fan have been removed. The 4 nuts holding the fan assembly were a pain to remove. Used two 12 mm wrenches working against each other to remove (as mentioned in the Lexus tutorial - worked great. Just not alot of room)

I changed the thermostat before pulling the water pump apart. I used black sparpie to mark the correct position of the thermostat on the housing before pulling it out of the recessed area it sits in. They want the little jiggle "thingy" to be at the top".

This is where I stopped for the evening. About 3 hours worth of work - taking my time. The block took a while to drain. Don't forget to tighten the nut on the drain, and use your torque specs. Nothing here calls for that much torque.

The chain wrench from Harbor Freight made quick work of the crank bolt. Loosened but not removed. I set the the crank pulley at TDC (0) and called it a night.

No problems so far. Am hoping the seals look ok. If so, tomorrow should be relatively simple.

I didn't buy the permatex gray, but went with permatex "one minute gasket" called "the right stuff". The permatex website lists this as great for many applications including water pumps. Anyone have any experience with it?

Will fininsh my story tomorrow. Wish me luck.

[KFlash]

Day two started by draining the oil - made sense with the skid plate off.

From there, it was one piece after another and another and another...By the time I got down to the water pump, I had a line of parts and small bags with nuts/bolts all the way across my front porch. I figured that was the easiest way to keep it straight. The biggest pain for me during the tear down was that you need to remove all three power steering pump bolts to enable the alternator to slide off. Why, because they had to put one of the belt tensioner mounts behind the alternator! The AC compressor also bolts to the fan bracket and needed to have the front two bolts removed.

Once that was done, I figured it would be smooth sailing from there. The water pump showed no signs of weeping from the outside however, once off, the weep hole from the back was almost completely encrusted shut with white deposits. Probably wouldn't have lasted much longer. The new pump went on without any problems. Definately follow all torque values. Everything has fairly low torque values and I can see them easily over done without a torque wrench! Hint: drain coolant from both ports on the block! Each side drains one entrance to the water pump. I only drained the driver's side and still had some fluid left which begain to spilled out with the pump being loosened. I then loosened the passenger's side port and a ton more drained out.

New idler pulleys on... now...the belt. The motor was perfectly set at TDC. All the marks were visible on the pulleys. Piece of cake. The new belt was marked just as in all the tutorials and Haynes manual. The spanner wrench I bought from Advance Auto definately made this an easier job. I followed the instructions for routing and tensioning the belt. Got the tensioner installed and pulled the pin. One TDC to TDC revolution. OUCH, my marks were off. With the crank cover back on, the belt must have skipped a few teeth on the crank pulley. So, off with the tensioner (which I now had to recompress in my vise - which worked perfectly) and the belt.

This time all went well and one piece after another and another, went back on. Filled up all the fluids and went for a shower.

Moment of truth! After hesitating and one more mental walk through, I reconnected the negative terminal on the battery and turned the key. Awesome! It started without any issues. I thought the motor sounded a little tappy at first, but went away once the oil recirculated.

I then put about 30 easy miles on the truck last night. No leaks so far. I will take a look today, but am pretty sure all should be ok. The permatex one minute FIPG worked great on the water inlet.

Final thoughts. With having to remount the timing belt, I had about 12 hours into it all together over the two days. If I had to do another right now, I could easily shave a few hours off. There was a lot of head scratching and referencing as I went through it that slowed me down.

Good luck for all those who follow - a very satisfying project!

[dmillikan]

KFlash...Well congrats!

I checked prices today at my dealer. Timing belt replacement $299.00. If needed Water Pump approx $200 additional. Didn't check on other misc. stuff that should be replaced at the same time.


2001 Sequoia SR5 - 135,000 miles.

Considering I have NEVER had it to the dealer for repair / maintenance I think I might pay the $$$$ and save the time. Would like the car to last another 130K.

[kovawa]

Good job Kflash!

Replacing the T-belt and H2O pump can be a nightmare if done incorrectly. Sounds as if you were able to keep the parts well organized during disassembly, that's the trick to doing it right. I"ve done that job many times, and no matter how many times i do it , i still find myself stopping to think " Where the heck did this part go". The silicone sealer you chose is good stuff! I use it on everything! Did you use factory parts? The factory timing belt has reference marks on it for both cams and the crank. That makes lining up the belt really easy. I agree with your thoughts about the one tensioner bolt that is buried behind the alternator, Thats alot of work to do for access to one bolt! I got tired of tearing down all of that mess to get to the tensioner. I fabricated a tool that allows the tensioner to be compressed while still mounted to the engine, A REAL TIMESAVER!
LOL on any future projects!

KOVAWA

[MOREPOWER]

My truck is 6.5 years old yet only 45k miles.
Ive been wanting to just look at the belt
To help me decide wether to do it now or wait.

I removed the plastic cover, and was able to check it.
I see no problem waiting another two years, or 60k miles.

[KLINDSEY]

Originally Posted by dmillikan

KFlash...Well congrats!

I checked prices today at my dealer. Timing belt replacement $299.00. If needed Water Pump approx $200 additional. Didn't check on other misc. stuff that should be replaced at the same time.


2001 Sequoia SR5 - 135,000 miles.

Considering I have NEVER had it to the dealer for repair / maintenance I think I might pay the $$$$ and save the time. Would like the car to last another 130K.

I just ordered and received all my parts to do the timing belt, from AnythingToyota.com. I ordered timing belt, water pump, thermostat, and gasket, 8 spark plugs (copper core) 2 gallons of anti freeze shipped to 41001, for 290.00 bucks give or take a couple of dallars. I'm going to do this job in the next couple of weeks, I'm at 89600 miles now.
Ask for Darrell.
Kevin.

[KFlash]

Make sure you have those two O rings required for the water pump swap! You can't do the job without them.

[KLINDSEY]

Originally Posted by KFlash

Make sure you have those two O rings required for the water pump swap! You can't do the job without them.

Thanks I will double check to make sure, Darrell said they were in the water pump kit. We will see.
Kevin