Timing belt needed?

Hello everyone, new to the forum. I have a 2002 4x4 Toyota tundra with a 4.7l engine.

❌❌❌I know….. I know… better safe than sorry…. But don’t have the funds right now, maybe at least 6 months later i I will since I have upcoming priorities .❌❌❌

however I don’t know the last time the previous owner changed it. By the looks it seems ok, what do y’all think? seems like the clutch and thermostat housing and serpentine belt is new so maybe safe to assume they changed it? The coolant is clear. Attached is also the timing belt itself. Doesn’t look bad, maybe some micro cracks if I stare hard at it.

please see pics attached. THANKS FOR EVERYONES HELP!

 

How many miles on the truck?

I personally wouldn't chance it, especially if you are capable of doing the work yourself. The timing belt kit is a whole lot cheaper than another engine.

 

Wrong coolant, and possibly mixed. That stuff looks greenish-pink. Should be pink. And I agree with @dt325ic about not taking a chance. The kit is relatively cheap if you can do the work. Buy the Aisin kit from Rock Auto. Do yourself a favor, read and heed this: https://www.tundras.com/threads/so-you-wanna-buy-just-bought-a-1st-gen-tundra-eh.115928/ There is a wealth of information in there that should answer most, if not all of your questions. Really pay attention to the Lower Ball Joint section. This might even be more of a priority than the timing belt.

 

Crowdfunding might get you going if you have a great story to share.

 

Well according to him, I guess I’m good haha

 

If you can get more of the cover off to inspect the entire inner side of the belt for cracks… but then your half way toward changing it. I replaced just the belt and tensioner in my dad’s tundra a few years ago for about $50. Old belt had two pretty deep cracks with 221k on it.

 

welcome to 2024. The FIPG and two o-rings will cost half that much. I think the tensioner was almost $100 and close to the same for the belt when I did mine a few months back. Did a water pump while I was in there too - about 6-7 hours start to finish and about 1/4 of that was wrestling with the fan bracket.

 

1. Might put your vin into the Toyota site and see if the TB was replaced at a dealer. If you can’t determine when last was only safe answer is do it ASAP. Should be done every 90-100K. If DIY get AISIN kit from Rock Auto
2. PO put wrong coolant in. Should be pink. Drain it and replace with Xerex Asian Pink.
3. Your valve covers are leaking pretty good. Use OE or Felpro only.
4.Inspect you LBJs now. If worn or other than OEM replace ASAP.
5. Read Shifty’s FGT megathread

Semper Fi Marine

 

The timing belt looks to be okay. I wouldn't have a problem waiting 6 months to change it. I'd hold off on replacing the coolant until it's time to tackle the timing belt. There is no reason to dump 3 gallons of good coolant 6 months from now. Prioritize replacing the lower ball joints with OEM lower ball joints over the timing belt at this point since it doesn't sound like you have a decent service history. More FGT's are probably taken off the road from a failed lower ball joint than a snapped timing belt.

 

According to whom?

 

this be true.


Although I will add; I'm 90% sure the wrong coolant in my 4.7 was the downfall of the thermostat. It too had green/yellow coolant when I first got it.

with that said, I could do it again, I'd change all the fluids I could to OE spec.

I know you said you don't got the funds right now, but I REALLLLY hope you plan on doing it soon, especially if you don't get a service record to see if it was ever done.

you put off the timing belt, water pump, or lower ball joints for long enough. You'll be out of a truck

 

Just like with anything on our trucks, an old timing belt could snap at any time, and it's good to feel some sense of urgency about it. But within reason.

If you can tolerate the audio and haven't already come across this researching how to check the belt, skip to about the three minute mark. Yes, a belt could break long before it reaches this point. But a belt can also be pushed to this point without breaking. Course you still haven't mentioned how many miles are on the truck. Almost a given it's time to do the belt, but it's probably not about to snap in the next 1,000 miles.

Half the people on this forum would probably immediately tow their truck to a mechanic or absolutely not start the engine again after seeing that belt, until it had been replaced. Guy in the video is like "yeah, guess I better have it replaced sooner than later"...

 

Mine had green coolant when I got it. Replaced it a couple years later when radiator developed a leak.

 

What kills timing belts and timing chains is acceleration and deceleration. Highway driving they get little wear. When I sold my first 2000 4.7 tundra it had 177K miles on it when I sold it and I didn't even know it had a belt. I have replaced the belt twice on my 2006 4.7 at 90k and 110K miles. Both times the old belt looked like brand new. Be careful you don't lay the old belt next to the new one when you replace it, you might not be able to tell the new one from the old one and put the old one back on accidentally. In the future I think I will let it go to 130K miles.

 

^ the label was completely faded on my old belt even though it was in good condition - if you can’t tell the new belt form the old belt do not attempt this maintenance.

 

I feel completely safe going 100,000 miles. For me anyway, once it's been 100,000, I start saving money and thinking about when I'll get it done. I think 130,000 is about the schedule my Tacoma was on. First time, done by previous owner, was around 120,000. I had it done at 240,000. Now it's at 330,000 and unfortunately for the next owner, it's going to be their problem.

Where I live, it's not at all unusual to drive 2 hours or more to get somewhere. But those 2 hours are 150 miles on the interstate. Not 45 miles in stop & go traffic. Definitely one of the reasons my high mileage vehicles are in great shape.

 

I'd add to this, it's not always mileage or cracking that kills belts. Leaks onto it from the water pump or otherwise can lead to rapid deterioration. One more reason simply looking at one section of the belt isn't always indicative of the bigger picture. Another major fail point is the tensioner giving in, which is catastrophic, and less commonly, a pulley seizing. All of these are reasons why, if you have no history, you shouldn't always judge based on appearance. That said, I don't see characteristic cracking, but I've also seen some YouTube videos where cracked belts were pulled with virtually no signs of cracking because of the other things I mentioned. But ...

You can't trust stickers. Those can be bought on scAmazon for $3 and the kind of owner that mix coolants would be the kind of person to spend $3 on a sticker to fake doing $1,500 in maintenance and sell at a higher cost.

I would be less concerned about the belt in this case, and be more concerned about the coolant mixture, because this is what happens when you mix coolant and/or use the wrong coolant: This is what came out of Crackie when Tundra2 opened it up and realized his PO put wrong coolant in, he may've mixed coolant OR used tapwater and that's rust and yellow coolant precipitate mixed. It was in everything, like the throttle body bypass, the lines to the oil cooler, clogging everything up to the oil cooler, clogging the internals of the oil cooler, completely clogging cooling hoses, one radiator hose, another radiator hose. This was the consistency of it.

If I were you, I'd be doing a couple of things at this moment:

• Listen to the member above who told you to sign up for Toyota Owner's website, assign your truck VIN to your account, and look for maintenance records for the truck's VIN, seriously, STAT, ASAP, go do this already, and if you can't figure it out, let us know.
• Start making plans to flush the apparently-mixed coolant, it should be all pink long-life coolant, you'll want to purge what's in there, refill with distilled water, run it for a minute or two with that, then purge again and replace with pink long-life. Get a good burping funnel if you don't have one.
• You may want to consider replacing the radiator proactively while you're doing this, since you'll be in there anyway, and "pink milkshake"
• Even if the timing belt looks OK, if there's no receipt showing the service, and the person you bought from can't supply a receipt or other physical proof, start planning for the change
• Verify all the other fluids in the vehicle, since clearly someone had to put some coolant in it, who knows why but it's sketch anyway, because they apparently used the wrong coolant ... what else did they put the wrong fluid in? Brakes? Did they use power steering fluid instead of DexIII ATF in the power steering reservoir? Did they use the correct fluid in the rear diff? You literally will need to question everything they did at this point.

 

UPDATE, decided to replace the coolant with the red stuff and did a timing belt kit as well. Just hit the bullet.

 

Check that PCV on the drivers valve cover. May be contributing to all that oil staining.