Got a notice from the stealership today saying my timing belt needs replacing.It's been 60,000 miles since the last one.The 90Runner is at 180,000.Do I let them do it or let it ride a while?About $400 to replace.Any thoughts/ideas/suggestions?Thanks...

 

I was 8K over on mine and I have had a couple buddies with Yota's that didn't believe in preventive maintenance and who knows how many miles they had. If you have that many miles you may seriously want to consider replacing all the idlers in there too. I only had 128K and mine were shot. I would also do the waterpump. I was lucky and only paid $100 in labor to a cousin but I had close to $400 in just parts when I started the job. It sucks but if you replace all that stuff you'll be good to go for a while.. at least on that part of motor.

 

JM, what's your comfort level with a socket wrench? That $400 is mostly labor (and it's a bit high), the belt itself is only about $35. And Joey's right, you should do the water pump while you're in there, about $95 new. The job is about 2-3 hours for some that's done it before. Figure $75/hour and that's $150/$225 for labor.

The job isn't hard, you just have to watch out that you get the cam aligned right when you put the new belt on.


fwiw, I'm at 137k with the original belt on a 3.4L.

 

the factory maintenance schedule on these babies encourage timing belt replacement on vehicles that are used in extensive idling situations, e.g., coppers, cabbies & your friendly neighborhood pizza delivery guy doing the door-to-door thing, every 60k miles.
they will last for quite some time past the listed 60k mark under normal driving conditions, so i'd say that it was really a matter of preference.
you should perhaps remove the cover & eyeball the belt for signs of wear yourself & base your decision on what you find.
if you do decide to replace it, you should replace the water pump, & perhaps the idlers as well, as previously suggested by "UKMyers" & "midiwall."
good luck,

-f-