gautam

Today I was at my local Toyota Dealership to figure out why the "Check engine light" came on and they looked up the code - PO120 and said the Throttle Position Sensor needed replacing. They next said when they replace the TPS it would be a good idea to also get the Top End Engine Clean done. They saw some carbon deposits. I said OK. Anyway to make a long story short after all the work was done they finally said that it was time to change the timing belt. The vehicle has just crossed over 90000 miles.

I vaguely recall hearing from someone that the 2000 4Runner V6 does not require timing belt replacements/adjustments, because it has a timing chain, and now I am hearing the opposite. If someone can educate me on this I will really appreciatel. I am not sure if I can fully trust the advise i am getting from my local dealership.

Thanks.

BruceTS

At 90k, it's getting close to needing replacement, and yes it has a timming belt. With that said you can run it til the belt breaks, it won't hurt the engine. It'll just cost you money to get it towed.

Paul H.

If you get it done, also get the drive belts replaced and the water pump too.

Never heard of a top end engine clean, is that another way for dealers to make money?

LV_4Runner

As someone already mentioned, the 4runner engine is so-called non-inteferrence engine. Therefore, theoretically, no internal interferrence even T-belt is broken. However, there are two major reason that you need to think about, which will greatly affect the life of engine..

1. Just imagin you broke t-belt while driving in highway at 70~80mph. Theoretically, valve and piston should not touch each other. However, what is going to happen in side engine?, where does all the combustion pressure go? exhaust gas fume etc?

2. What if your water-pump goes bad even if T-belt last long? Waterpump usually don't fail but when if fails, it will significantly damage engine in modern water-cooled engine.

It is so-called preventative maintenance if you want to keep your car for long term. Manual recommends it every 60k, I do it at least every 70~80k. No engine problem what so ever on my cars... My runner has 113k now, and my other Honda cars have 196k and 140k etc, all runs strong and smooth...

BruceTS

Neither point you bring up will shorten the life of the engine

1. T-belt breaks.... absolutely nothing will happen, the engine will simply die

2. Water pump failure will only hurt your engine, if you keep driving it afterwards, then seriously overheating it.

Either which case, a brand new t-belt or water pump can fail at anytime from a defective part. Personally I'll wait til either part fails before replacing them. Currently I have aprox 130k on my 4runner and know of a few others that have over 100k on theirs as well.

Rick F.

90K is correct, but it won't hurt if you need to wait a bit. There are many stories of people going well beyond the 90K mark (60k for the 2nd gen 3.0) with no problem and very few stories of people HAVING problems. I personally try to follow the Toyota recommendation and just had mine done at 93K but wouldn't sweat tacking on an additional 10-20K if needed.

bamachem

i have 142k and counting on the original belt and water pump...

surf4runner

im approaching 100k and will do it soon. the intermitent squeeky pully is annoying and loud at idle. so ill replace everything behind it right after i pass 100k.
does anyone loan the pulley tool? or is any close to me in so-cal that will loan theirs? fermented beverage trades available.

shazaam

just replace it since your having work done. The piece of mind of knowing everything is good will be worth it

dallison

my camry was like that, i went to start it one day and the strange noise under the hood was a tell tale sign of a timing belt that lost its teeth

CLin9383

well, i have 120k on my 96 and i just replaced and it cost a pretty penny from the stealership..but i figure i only do this once every 5+ years. at least they gave me a loaner car for free..

Merc Man

I know this is an old thread but I was looking into this with the timing belt. Just want to give you one scenario where this is a bad idea to wait. I bought my truck used with 160,000 miles on it. I was told the timing belt had just been changed. I started to hear a knocking noise about 10,000 miles after I got it. After pulling the cover I found that one of the idlers had gone bad and caused the belt to shift. It damaged the water pump, both idlers and the covers etc. it appeared that someone may have changed the belt, but never changed any of the other parts. The hydraulic tensioner was original and it was shot. So, I could see driving a bit over 90k and not worrying about it but if it is near the second (180k) or .... belt you better go ahead and do it.
As far as the Toyota cleaning thing goes ALL the car dealerships have there unique scams to make extra money. The first time I found out about this was with chevy on the vortec motors. They had a gimmick where it was "recommended" to have the upper intake cleaned or damage could occur to the engine. What is it they do? They take a spray can of cleaner and squirt it in to remove carbon from inside the intake manifold. Which will come back eventually anyway. There is so much unneeded work being done when you take your vehicle in. If you don't pay close attention, you may leave with another 500.00 bill when you go in for a 30.00 oil change!!! But I honestly think the quick lube places are the worst. They will try to nickel and dime you on everything from your air filter to your fuel filter and top it off with the "reverse" transmission flush procedure.