1st Gen Tundra Frame/Rust Advice

Yeah the Gates timing belt is supposed to be really good. It's just that their timing belt kit uses cheap Chinese water pumps and other accessories (tensioners etc). So my mechanic told me to be on the look out. The other stuff could fail early.

 

Ooh yeah. The combination of cheap water pump and tensioners is scary.

I'm paying for it now (literally), but when I first bought my truck I allowed myself to use the credit card and just do everything that needed to be done. Start from as clean a slate as possible, mechanically. I didn't want to unknown of the timing belt/water pump weighing on me. If I had to do it again...I don't know. Debt sucks and this is my first time with any real debt in a long, long time. But I like where my truck is at.

Probably could have skipped the multiple hundreds I spent on seat covers, topper roof rack etc...but I was in the spending mood.

 

You touched on a really important point, one I think a lot of people overlook.

Toyota has their maintenance schedule, every manuf'er does. That maintenance shedule, its timeframes, are based on using OEM parts. It does not apply to aftermarket parts, i.e. parts which Toyota has no control over the quality of.

Classic example? OEM LBJ will last you at least 100k miles, and I'd be surprised if it didn't last until $150k or more. Aftermarket, if you made it to 50k without failure, I'd be impressed. But you'll be lucky if you make it to 20k, realistically.

I've been trying to drill this point home a lot lately after seeing too many assfucks on Facebook and other places who had misguided viewpoints after a failure occured. "But Toyota says every X# miles?!!! Toyota f'n sucks!"

No, Toyota doesn't suck. They just missed a fundamental part of the requirements/intent behind the manufacturer's numbers.

For anything direly consequential, always use OEM parts. Timing? Cooling? Ignition and related sensors? Critical suspension like UBJ/LBJ? Use OEM.

For anything Toyota designed specifically for their engines, like filters, always use OEM over aftermarket. Toyota knows EXACTLY what flow and filtration characteristics their vehicle/engine/etc. will operate best with, so you better believe the filters they designed are going to provide the absolute highest longevity possible for their vehicles - their reputation depends on it.

Serpentine belt? Pfft. Gates, all the way. There are some places where I'll stray from OEM on misc things, like always Dana/Spicer for driveline components, but fortunately for us, Toyota made sure our drivelines were made by Dana/Spicer, so it's same as OEM anyway.

But yeah. tl;dr - Don't adhere to Toyota's maintenance guidelines unless you're using genuine Toyota parts.

 

searched Gates timing belt in the search bar and landed here.

Found the yellow Gates sticker stating the timing belt was done @ 68k miles. That also matches with available service records on carfax, but also with the hand written notes in the Maintenance Guide from the original owner...the guy was detailed in his notes and its been interesting reading. Nonetheless, can I trust the gates timing belt job?? Not sure if the water pump was changed. Toyota service records indicate the owner was made aware of an "issue regarding the cooling system" three times around the same mileage as the Gates mileage.

Shifty is probably getting tired of seeing my name pop everywhere here haha....i can hear the inter-monologue now, "this guy, he's the stereotypical used tundra buyer, coming up in here, blasting away with all known issues these trucks have, sounding like a broken 1st Gen record"

 

If it matches both his hand written records and a Carfax record, I'd probably trust it personally.

From what I know, these timing belts come in a kit with all of the other stuff, water pump, tensioners, idlers, cam and crank seals. But you and I are in the same boat now: we have a good timing belt but not so good water pump etc. Belt is high quality but they use cheap Chinese manufacturers to fill out the rest of the kit. The good news is that usually you'll get a warning. You can start to see coolant leak from the water pump early. That's your sign to get the job done.

 

i've noticed others say similar, good belt poor parts kit. oh well, i'll make it last as long as i can. I do have a squeaking tension pulley on the serpentine belt though. It's the one just right (if you're looking at it from the front) of the power steering pump. Put a stethoscope on it and it sounds very different and loud compared to the other pulleys.