What do you guys think of this? I just spent way too much time problem solving what turned out to be a timing belt that fell apart and slipped 3 groves. I bought this '93 4Rnr (3vze) from my father who had the timing belt "replaced" 3 years ago... just before I took possession.

It's an "ITM" belt, which I am not familiar with. It either failed at 50K miles (3 years) or at 110K miles.

Here is my question to all of you: Did my father's mechanic install a sub-standard timing belt 3 years ago that looks this bad after 50K miles, or did he just not replace the timing belt at all 3 years ago?

 

my guess is that the belt is WAY over 3 years old and 50k miles.

my OEM one was approaching 8 years old with 158k miles and looked WAY better than that!

 

That?s the direction I?m leaning. The only thing preventing me from fully investing in that line of thought is that you can still read the print on the belt, which seems unusual for a belt with 110K on it. Since I?m not familiar with ITM belts it?s hard to say, but I can?t imagine that any company could put out a product that would be this far off OEM specs and still be in business. That would leave us with one conclusion? My Dad got soaked on some major maintenance work. If that ends up being the case we will be having a very serious discussion with someone in the near future. This would be the second issue around timing belt service that has been taken up with this guy by our family. He did a timing belt service on my parents Honda Accord about 10K early without preauthorization. I?m starting to wonder if that belt was changed. Last time I checked Honda Accord has an interference engine which would be a much larger issue if the belt failed. Hmmmm?