What a disaster - my poor Tundra...

As some of you may recall, I bought my Tundra recently and love it. It performs well, but it had a slight oil leak at the front end of the engine. Since I will be keeping the truck a while, I decided to let the mechanic have at it and fix the problem (cam seal). I was told by the previous owner the truck had the timing belt done less than two years ago.

I was sent the following pictures (timing belt cover and timing belt)...

Sooo...the timing belt was shredding and partially off the pulley. The tensioners had self destructed. A Korean made water pump was installed. In short, the timing belt job that had been done was not even half assed and I was living on borrowed time.

I guess if I had to do all over again I would not have focused on buying a truck with the timing belt job "recently done" and just bought a truck and considered a timing belt job done on my own dime as part of the purchase price...

The happy news is I have a good mechanic that uses only oem parts and will make everything nice and pretty...for another 100k miles.

 

Cheap water pumps and incorrect installation are the main causes for these engines to end up in a scrap yard. Good catch! Get some new oem parts up there and enjoy the next 90k

 

Good catch indeed..
We all love a happy ending...

 

Yep hate timing belts, pain in the ass especially if dual cam. Give me a chain any day.

 

Eh these are usually problem free as long as good parts are used. Chains are preferred to me. BUT. From experience. I hate doing 5.7 timing chains. Good news is, you don’t need to IF you don’t delay oil changes

 

So far just two oil changes, no worries as of yet. Yeah 5.7 chain looks like fun, more than likely good for my lifetime, but then again you never know.

 

Dayum.... carnage... I'm leaking coolant on the 1uz, but the belt was done 30k miles ago by the stealership... doesn't guarantee me any extended life, just enjoying the moments though... my 5.7 is good, just started ticking with 230k.. guess it's that time for me...

 

I am glad you & your mechanic caught that.
Your truck will last a lifetime if maintained properly.

 

Wow.. Good catch. Glad the damage wasn't worse.

 

I thought the same thing until my old pathfinder wore down the chain guides. 180K on an old rusty car, then it needs something stupid like 10 hours to replace the guides - well, might as well replace the chain, gears, and sensors.

I actually just ran it into the ground and hoped for the best. The chain did wind up outlasting the car.

Although I will give Nissan credit, that 3.5 lasted 12 years with a head gasket leak (oil passage to outside). Still replaced it with a Toyota anyway.

 

As one who likes to do post-mortem analysis, it looks as if the belt is Mitsuboshi Brand which is OEM?

The belt slipped over because? Maybe the old Hydraulic TB tensioner was reused and failed?

I’ve heard people say they reuse them.

Glad nothing bad happened and you caught it!

 

Did Mitsubishi make a V8 in the US or do they make timing belts for all manufacturers? How can you mess something like that up?

 

I think this is the biggest take away for anyone in the market for one of these legendary 1st gen Tundras. I would rather negotiate $500 off a truck and know the timing belt was done correctly.

I don't know how you even found a truck that had the timing belt done. Most people looked at me with a dumb face when I asked about it. We live in a throw away society. That is the topic of another post though.

 

Here is the Aisin Kit I used. The belt is Mitsuboshi Brand.

Capt’n belt had to just over that rim on the Water Pump Pulley. Gnar gnar.

 

Mitsubishi is an industrial manufacturer that makes all sorts of industrial products....including auto parts used by all sort of manufacturers. I believe Mitsubishi is the OEM belt on our Tundras.

 

Are you in the proper thread?

 

Nope, and your "like" helped me realize it...

 

Is that reminiscent of a "Rolax" watch?

 

Well that doesn’t seem like much of a OEM quality belt if it’s shredding.

 

Failed pump
Will do thid

 

The belt is not designed to be run 1/2 off the pulley....that would shred any belt in fairly short order.....OEM or not.

 

An update...everything's been fixed and she purrs like a kitten. All the odd little noises I heard before are gone and she idles in near silence at 650 rpm...

The mechanic showed me a fixed pulley which was missing a nut that kept it in place. He had no idea why it fell off...perhaps somebody put a wrench to it and shouldn't have? So that pulley was moving sideways causing the timing belt to move. If this wasn't discovered, I could have been posting next week looking for a new engine or truck...

 

Glad you got it fixed Captain!

 

Disaster averted! Great news. Makes me wanna go back and take a peek at mine.

 

What's the easiest way to look at the belt?

 

Unbolt and pull the timing belt cover back I believe

 

Agree with knabores....... pulling that cover is the only way