rdharper

Timing belt provides timing between valves and crank angular displacement. If it breaks, engine quits, but usually no damage, as the 3VZE is a "non-interference" engine. This means the valves will not strike the pistons.

However losing the belt is a potential safety problem (no power), and some people claims you can cause damage, others insist no. In any event, if you don't know when it was done, you should have it done.

There is lots of info on this forum on the subject.

And no, timing belt changes are not part of a "tune-up". You have to ask for a timing belt change. A dealer will charge in the range of 2 to 3 hundred.

infiltrator

really 2 to 3 hundred bucks for that? i mean, your talking dealer here, i wonder if i can get it changed somewhere else for cheaper?

also, on a tune up i was just wondering if they would at least check the belt, not change it. but we will have to see

rdharper

Sure you can get it done cheaper. In my case, I like the dealer, they keep good records, stand behind their work, are fast, and get it done right the first time. And they don't come back with another job that didn't need doing.

As to "checking it", as I said, if you don't know the miles on it, I'd have it replaced. You might do some searching... lots of good discussion on this subject.

MarkT

Lots of Good write-Ups on 3.4 Timing Belt Replacement; but can't seem to find a good detailed one on the R & R of the Cam and Crank Seals. I will be due for a Timing Belt this winter. Can they be pryed out without damaging the Cam/Crank after removing the Sprockets? I do have the FSM. It shows complete disassembly of the Head to replace the Cam Seals; assume there is an easier way?

Mark

Tacotex

You can use a pick tool to get them out after you remove the pulleys. Mine were stubborn the last time, and I had better luck punching a hole in the outer corner of the seal, then using a curved pick to pry them out. What ever you do, protect the shaft

Tacotex

Finally got around to changing the timing belt, water pump, t-stat, front seals and outer belts on the 4runner. Belt didn't look bad at all-no sign of the beginning of a break. Idler pulleys still turning very smooth. No RTV needed with factory gaskets. Not sure leaving the AC compressor bolted up really saved any time. Parts cost me about $244. + coolant

Mileage @ change 204,681

MLiebal

Now I am starting to get nervous.
I have 120k miles on the second belt.
Intervals for the second belt should be less then the original?
Shocking news to me.
Any data to back this up? Anyone hear of a second belt breaking?

Still, I guess I better order up the parts.

Thanks

MMount

I have rebuilt the 5vz-FE and it is non-interference. Period. You can take the timing belt off and turn the crank all day and it will never hit a valve, you can put the timing belt on any way you want and it will never cause the pistons to hit a valve.

Putting a timing belt on the 5vz-FE is child's play, if you can read and turn a wrench you should have little trouble. I'm sure you could teach a monkey to do it.

By the way I just changed mine at 166,000 and only because the water pump went, it could have gone another 100,000 most likely.

highmilesrunner

get this...just bought a 97 SR5 from a friend. it has 268K on it and he swears he had never changed the timing belt. he has owned since 41K. i had toyota replace timing belt last week and mechanic said it was only a little fuzzy.

rdharper

I suspect that the huge variance in timing belt life is directly related to how well the belt is treated. By that I mean this. Consider the case of a well maintained 4Runner, with an automatic transmission (working well), and easy no-stress driving.

Now consider the opposite extreme. Maybe even well maintained, but a manual transmission with lots of cases of popped clutches, and/or tuning problems complete with rough running.

I could be wrong. But it seems to me that second case puts a lot more stress on the belt than the first case.

And of course you get a whole spectrum between the two extremes.

Just a thought.

Tacotex

I haven't read all the way through this thread in a while, but I don't recall hearing of a belt breaking. Anyone?

surf4runner

never heard about 3.4 belt breaking, im sure 1 (or maybe 2) has.

id guess that when they tested them to issue a 90K interval, there were plenty that exceeded that w/o failure.
just get the ones made on tue or wed

aowRS

I've been away from Yotatech for quite some time (the 4Runner just keeps piling on the miles with no issues...).

I'm now at 152,000 miles with original T-belt, acc. belts, water pump, etc. The intent was to do this a few years ago, but somehow I keep shelving the work.

If Texas Toyota is still a trusted source, I'll gather all the parts numbers and get everything assembled in order to take care of this at home.


Andreas

shoveler

At 80K miles my 99 4runner with the 3.4 L V6 and 5-speed started squeaking around the front of the engine and I assumed it was just one of the fan/power steering/AC belts getting old. About the same time it started losing just a little bit of coolant, ~1 inch every other month low in the overflow bottle. I should have paid attention to these clues because at 90,500 miles, while driving on Christmas eve, the motor lost all power and I coasted to the side of the road. Turns out the water pump had started leaking and contaminated the center T-belt pulley causing the bearings in it to fail. When I opened the hood the pulley that failed had gotten so hot it had burned a hole through the plastic T-belt cover. Needless to say the timing belt itself was in tatters. I pulled it home, replaced the t-belt, water pump, all t-belt idlers/ pulleys and the tensioner. Its running fine at 105K miles with no squeaks or coolant loss.

I was going about 40 miles per hour when the belt gave loose and then I tried for several minutes to re-start the engine after it quit. From this I conclude that the 3.4 V6 is not, luckily for me, an interference motor.

camp1

99k on my 2000 3.4 litre and 145k on my 1995 3.0.

X-AWDriver

I finally got around to doing mine last month at 138k and the belt still looked good but my outer belts were getting pretty fuzzy but it's nice to have the peace and mind of not having to worry about it for a while.

birchy

181,000km (112,000 miles) on mine. As far as I know, it's still original. I'm going to have to do some digging.

Some have mentioned taking off the cover to check.. Is there a sure fire way to tell if it's original or not just by LOOKING at it?

racermp

mine was replaced at 130k. says it on the cover

emptypockets

I just did mine this week at ~93K. I'm not a big risk taker and wanted to make sure it didn't break on me. The shop did the water pump, other belts and thermostat while they were in there too.

graybeard

164,000 and still going! year 2000.