Timing belt change

I own a 2006 tundra, 4 door with 141k miles on it. I'm being told that my timing belt needs changing due to the miles, from the Toyota dealers maintenance department. Is this true ? If I don't change it now and it breaks sometime in the future , will it cost me a lot on engine repair ?

 

If that belt breaks say goodbye to your engine. Get it done they're supposed to be done at 90,000-100,000

 

I did mine at 102k...may as well crank out the H2O pump while you're in there Preventative maintenance is ALWAYS cheaper than rebuilds or totaling the ride

 

Maybe a dumb question, but is there any way to tell by inspection that the timing belt has been replaced? I bought my '05 at auction, it has 160K. I have NO clue what's been done, if anything, as far as preventive maintenance.

 

I doubt there's any obvious way to tell. You could look for tool marks on the bolts to see if they have been off in the past. A lot of times the manufacturer has paint marks on some of the bolts and nuts. If there is see if they lineup. But then that's not a definitive answer that it has been changed either.

 

When I bought my 4runner with the 4.7, it had 156k on it. I asked my mechanic the same question and he said that there was no way to tell, so I had him replace it. It was the original. He put a sticker on it that shows when it was replaced so when I sell it they can see when it was replaced (if the sticker is still there).
I used a forum like this to find out what all needed to be done on the engine for preventive maintenance and had it all done.

 

With every timing belt kit I've ever bought came with a sticker to place somewhere on the engine to write in the miles the timing belt was replaced and the two cars I've had a mechanic replace had a similar sticker notifying the mileage it was replaced. If anything it won't hurt to have the timing belt replaced for your knowledge. In the end a timing belt replacement will cost less than having to buy a new motor.

 

If I were you I'd go ahead and get the belt replaced. We had a timing belt go in a vehicle years ago and it wasn't pretty. They had to rebuild the engine.

 

Do it right the first time.

Change timing belt, water pump, idle rollers, cam seals, t-stat. Check hydraulic tensioner.

 

Was about to ask...new owner of a 120K '03 without much of a maintenance backstory. Carfax shows dealer service up to about 100K, but I called the dealership and their records show not much was done recently, no new belt. Wondering if there's an easy way to check on the engine itself, but without a sticker there, it looks like I'll be taking care of this myself ASAP to be on the safe side. Out of my range for DIY so it's a significant added cost, but I still feel good about the deal I got on this truck and what an upgrade over what I've been driving!

 

Have you tried putting the VIN in Toyota's website to check for records? I was able to find a lot that the previous owner did by doing this.
Might as well go ahead and replace the water pump while you're in there.

 

You can also go to the toyota owners website (https://www.toyota.com/owners/), add the vehicle to your profile, and then see the service history of all the services that were done at Toyota dealerships and their details. I have researched many Toyotas like this (you don't need to own the vehicle to use this tool) in the past when I was looking to buy used ones and it's great cause you can see if a particular vehicle has had known issues taken care of (like frame insp/replacements for Tundras from rust belt states, rear window motor replacement on DCs or 4WD actuator issues for 1gen Tundras in general) Another nice thing, is it will let you add service records as well to keep track of them. For instance, I recently bought Carfax certified 1-owner vehicle 2006 Tundra from a Chevy dealer who took it on trade. The previous owner had all his major services done at Toyota dealerships. There were pages of records in it's history in the Toyota Owners website...but the carfax showed that the previous owner also had a bunch of minor services (oil changes, alignments, new tires etc) at a local repair shop that reported to Carfax but that did not show up in the Toyota Owners website. Because you can add records there, I was able to manually add all the other service records and now have one place to go and look at everything that was done.

The previous owner was religious with maintenance, which was good for me, and the truck is low mileage, which is also good...but at 85K miles, it was not due for it's timing belt yet, so that one was not done and is now on my list.

 

Ha, just beat me to it!