Timing off for who knows how long!!?

Hey guys! I’m new and just bought my first Toyota; an 03 sequoia. I bought it after having a mechanic look at it and telling me it needed a cat and a wheel bearing, which I thought would be no big deal, but after digging into the car myself this week, it is slightly out of time (set on the “T” marks rather than the lines) I called the previous owner and asked if any work had been done on the timing belt or water pump recently and he didn’t know, he said it was his in-laws car and he only had it for a couple months. The only maintenance that he did to it was valve cover gaskets and a tune up. So here’s my question:
The truck has 155k miles and a timing belt cover that says 90,565. If this has been out of time for 65k miles, what is the likelihood that this motor is damaged? And what would you check/be worried about besides compression?

It doesn’t seem to have any blow-bye, and the timing belt looks really good (almost new). thanks in advance for your help!

 

you sure all the other line up?? cause the guy who did it before marked with the red marker.

 

Might want to rethink that line of thought.

timing marks not lining up

Two sets of timing marks. TDC on the crank puts the cams at the T mark. The cam timing mark on the crank puts the cams at the cast line timing mark.

 

This ^^^^ is good advice. Better understand exactly how a timing belt is installed before changing anything.

There are two minor clues that the mechanic that changed the timing belt may have been conscientious and knew his business: (1) He did mark the timing position, and (2) He had the presence of mind to write the mileage on the timing cover.

I would contact the seller again, and ask for the contact information for the in-laws. It's possible they may be able to provide additional information on the timing belt change.

Edit: I'm curious...Why did you remove the timing cover to check the timing?

 

Interesting thread. If those lines are the timing marks that engine wouldn't be running with it being that far out.

 

Right, good points. I should have clarified, my apologies. The crank pulley is at 0 when the cams are at the T mark, and not at the pin. According to the diagram in my manual, and my friend who used to be a Toyota mechanic but now works on our fire engines, When the crank pulley is lined up with the pin, the cams should line up at the T, but when at 0 on the crank pulley, the cams should be at the line.

is this wrong? I’m confident in my sources but I’m open to other opinions. I would hate to make the timing worse.

for a bit of history; the truck has been significantly under powered since I bought it. Throws no codes, but is low power at low rpm and virtually no power above 3k rpms. It will rev up to red line, but will lose more power the higher the revs. I have had this exact problem before on two separate cars where the timing was off, but they weren’t Toyota’s. The first mechanic I took it to was local non-dealer Toyota mechanic who said he believed the cats were both bad, but was unable to confirm. This seems unlikely as one side clearly has had a new cat recently. So I did some at home tests and could find no evidence that the cats were bad, took the truck to the muffler shop, they confirmed that the cats were fine, fuel system is all good, new filters, no leaks and good pressure. Plugs and coils are all new and working well. Truck idles fine, without any noticeable shimmy or misfire.

thanks for all the replies! I really appreciate the help

 

Sounds like you’ve done your due diligence Chris. The power problem is concerning. Having never performed a TB change, I have nothing to offer there other than commenting that another member here had the RPM situation you have and corrected it by bypassing the fuel pump resistor.

The thought was that bypassing it would juice the slowly aging/failing pump until she finally takes a dirt app. It eliminated the lack of power. How long till a new fuel pump is needed?

 

https://www.youtube.com/embed/M5qzZZO_SE8

YOu may have a point. Now remember though it may take a thousand revolutions or so before the marks on the belts line back up so don't get hung up on that

 

Got the timing fixed yesterday, and the truck is running great! Plenty of power and sounds smooth. I guess I’ll just put some sea foam into the intake and the fuel to try and clean out any build up that may have happened.

I also talked to the previous owner and it sounds like the truck has indeed been out of time for over 60,000 miles. I don’t hear any engine clatter or noise coming from the engine so hopefully the timing wasn’t off enough to cause damage. Any other thoughts on precautions I could take? Thanks again for all the replies!

 

I find it hard to believe someone drove that truck, with the power delivery as you described, for 60K miles?!?! Did the previous owner say they drive it like that for 60K miles with no power? It seems more likely it jumped timing much more recently than that. It's rare, but it happens. It happened to me on a 1st Gen Tacoma...and the power delivery symptoms were exactly as you described after the jumped timing as well, no codes either(I also had a mechanic give me a bad diagnosis of a bad cat)...anyway, glad you got it fixed.

 

They Said that they didn’t realize it lacked power until I said something on the test drive. He said that the in-laws never replaced the timing belt and never noticed a lack of power. I agree with you, but it seems like these people may have just been that oblivious. Or they’re being coy