95SASMudRunner

just wondering what the maintenace was for the timing chain for the 3.4L as in what mile range am i looking at?

rdlsz24

It's a belt:

http://www.4x4wire.com/toyota/maintenance/timing_belt/

Rob

icerunner

I WISH it was a chain.....TIming belts are a P.I.T.A

Ian Rogers

why do you say timing belts are a pain... I think that they are cool. Is only take like 3hr to swap them every 100k (w/water pump, and idlers) belts make 1/2 the noise of a chain, are smother then gears. I think that 3hr of work every 100,000 mi is not that much work.

DeathCougar

iTrader: (23)

Lets see...timing belt: Pull all the accessories of, timing cover off, no oily mess.

Timing chain: pull all the accessories off, timing cover off, big oily mess and silly plastic guides.

Both last the same amount of time, AND belt engines are non-interference.

I'd prefer the timing belt K thx.

btw as with any timing belt or chain, you should be looking at a 75-100k interval. Can they go longer? Sure. Do you want to take a $3000 chance for a $45 part? not likely.

icerunner

read my post below

icerunner

Hold on tiger,
Not all "Belt engines" are "Non interference" and those of us that have had horrible experiences ($$$$$$$) with timing belts BEG TO DIFFER. You can ask mitshibishi about their 2.4L engine that was in my girlfriends 00' eclipse gs. They use a timing belt in an interFEARance engine to squeeze out more HP and make the engine run quiter. I'll take LESS HP and a much noisier Engine ANYDAY OF THE WEEK than have a piece of reinforced rubber (timing belt) used as a last line of defense for a Interferance engine or even a non interferance engine for that matter....Also see what happens to your engine when you forget to torque down the balancer bolt to 217 ft pounds (can you say hurcules) on our 3.4L and then tell me how great timing belts are....

Here the story on the Mitshi GS 2.4L:
Chapter #1...the timing belt service....
.....At 58K miles on the eclipse engine I was going to ensure the 60K schedualed timing belt job was going to be done right.... and I paid over $1000.00 to a trusted local shop for a timing belt job (parts and labour) and I made sure I did it the right way (oem everything" water pump, tensioners, pullyies ect ect ect)

Well I found out later that the shop used a newer tech strait out of school for our 6000.00 INTERFEARENCE engine. Found out a year later that the tech forgot to re torgue 1 Bolt for one of the tensioners to the proper torque. I guess tensioners can "weather the storm" for a while but if there not adjusted correctly at the time of installation, like clock work the belt will go...

and Bam, at 12K miles later, the car dies out in a busy intersection with my girlfriend in the car. It took me 3 shops, 7 months in MY GARAGE (that is, my home's garage) and $2,500 to fiqure out it was a botched timing belt job....

Here is the break down
1st Shop:
They Swore up and down that the problem was a bad "ECM" and they wanted $1500.00 just for the ECM (small vehicle computer for those of you "not in the know") I disaggreed I said "hell no" and really didn't like the shop that my girlfriend had the car towed to so I had it towed back to my home.
My buddy who is a tech suggested that i give the ecm a try just to see if that works. so l found 1 used ecm used.... so I bought a used ECM for 159.00 on ebay and put it in myself...Thinking I'm a "smart dude". Well after almost loseing an arm under the passenger side dash in a eclipse the interior size of a Pinto. No Dice, car dosent start...

Oh By the way I needed a Locksmith ($140.00... a good deal considering the fact that he is the ONLY Lock smith in IL with the reprograming tool) to come out to my home to reprogram the Anti theft keys to coordinate with the new ECM. Well after 2 used ecm computers failing to help I found out that the 1st shop was wrong... (By the way it was rip off artists at mitshibishi parts desk that wanted $1500.00 for a small black box called the ECM...$1500.00 just for the part!!!!

Next chapter (SHOP#2) :
after undergoing depression over this vehicle and questioning my man hood several times over this mess the car sits in my garage for 3 months so I decide to try pepboys...So I paid again to have the car towed to Pepboys down the street. After spending more cash, Pepboys had NO Clue as to what the issue was, and yet I respected their honesty compaired to the 1st shop who wanted $2200.00 on a ECM (part and labor) part they guessed was defective ... the original ecm was fine ....
dam "part swithchers"
so i had the car towed back to my garage....


3rd Shop:
After 2 more months I finially break down and with a tub of vasoline in hand I go and I FINIALLY have the car towed to mitshibishi dealership. The mitshibishi stealership originaly wanted 2000.00 to "tear the engine down" to (now listen up) just to tell me what was wrong.... so I talked them down to 500.00 which was the cost of labor for a timing belt job. and To my suprise they discovered that the timing belt slipped 4 positions and that a tensioner bolt was not torqued down properly.... spent $500.00 for the evualation....I find it "telling" that the tech at mitshibishi stated that he has seen "Master tech's" (that don't work for a Mitshibishi dealership) screw timing belt jobs up.... (on this particular engine....)

4th shop visit: well after discovering that the timing belt job at 58K was a "botched job" I had the car towed 50 Miles to the original shop......back on the road i go with the happy tow truck driver($$$$) who is now my new friend back to the original shop that did the timing belt (60K service). so that they could correct their Mistake only to have they tell me that the "key way" on the camshaft was cracked and that it would cost me a minimum of 2000.00 to fix....JUST FOR THE CAMSHAFT....and if they found any thing else is wrong well then more $$$$ from me....

Bottom Line, is that I immediatly called Mitsubishi and spoke with the tech that evualated the car just hours before....put him on speaker phone with the original shop owner and He explained that the key way was perfectly fine when it was at the Mitsu dealer...

Ok, now it's "EYE OF THE TIGER" TIME

Now I'm kind of a big dude....Played college Football and stand 6'4" and weigh 260.....I'm also a very nice guy.... in most cases... But at this point my patience has been exhausted by this whole mess..... I told the owner of the business that if he dosent fix the issue for free that I'll camp out in the parking lot with my $199.00 craftman tool set (on sale) untill I can disassemble the cam shaft myself just so I can walk back inside his shop to shove the cam shaft right up his ass....

well after my "eye of the tiger experience", the shop owner decided to "look into the issue" and finially decided to fix everything. So, the cam key way was "micro welded" and repaired by the shop they put in all new OEM parts for the timing belt ect.... all at miminal cost to me...I paid for a new water pump because the oem was allready leaking at 12K...
oem mitshiubishi for you....

After everything was said and done , driving home from the shop with a much lighter wallet ($2,500 total)then i had 8 months ago and Remember we also paid 1000.00 for the original timing belt job.
and after that 8 MONTH Drama, finially driving home from the shop with a car that is finially fixed..... the check engine light comes back on... the car NEVER was fully fixed and I think by the timing BELT originally slipping 4 knotches, that one of the valves may have been "tweeked" ....I did take it back to the shop multiple times after that and yet they could never fix or fiqure out the cause for the check engine light...Because of the check engine light the car failed state emmissions testing 3 times and the state threatened to pull my girlfriends drivers license unless the car was "fixed".... or "sold"

Well I sold the P.O.S car with full disclosure on everything and told the buyer that eventhough the car ran great (and it did) that the Check engine light would not turn off...I got talked down on my selling price to $6000.00 for the car and joyfully sold that POS....

Mitshibishi, NEVER AGAIN, ALL BECUASE YOU WANTED to be cheap bastards when designing an interFEARance engine with a timing belt to gain some more HP and to reduce engine noise.....AND to BOB ROHRMANN Mitshibishi dealership, $1500.00 for an ECM? how dare you even try ....Bottom line is that timing belts , at least in an interfearance engine, are too expensive when they go, and cause too much unessessary drama in peoples lifes...

After selling the car, my liv'in girlfriend and I (now fiance) we bought a 2007 2.4L camry with a LIFETIME TIMING CHAIN in the engine....Kind of "telling" that toyota would switch their newly redesigned "bread a butter" vehicle (the camry) to a timing chain isnt it?
Lifetime chain is the way to go, there is no oily mess If you NEVER have to change the chain....I have a 3.4 litre runner and even at 90K belt intervals in a non interfearance engine, I still think its kind of a pain in the ass experience to change timing belts out.

Skrillah

Icerunner,

Thats quite a story man....at least you got rid of it and got a Toyota again. Like you said, but with a much lighter wallet.

Glad my 2.7 has a chain...shouldn't have to worry about it.

DeathCougar

iTrader: (23)

yea but we are talking Toyota engines...which are non-interference. So, again, I still take belt over chain. On Toyota engines.

btw good luck with that "lifetime" chain. All timing chains stretch. And when it streches and breaks, you'll be wishing you had replaced it. Kinda like the "lifetime" Fuel filter, and "Lifetime" trans fluid. I think you better read the fine print on those "lifetime" parts.

Skrillah: you WILL have to worry about it eventually, though timing chains generally last longer than belts (except in the 22R, doh!)

icerunner

Toyota is Smart and actually cares about their name and their customers, and Mitshibishi does not give a crap about how much money you'll have to spend at the dealer to replace a engine because of a rubber timing belt....

When I say "Lifetime" I really mean the "usefull life of the vehicle" Which i guess for toyotas engines is about 250,000 to 300,000 miles. I totally aggree with you on the fuel filter and the trans fluid....i agree, its stupid to say that the fuel filter will last forever.

Yet I have very rarely ever heard of a timing chain breaking due to the fact that it is old or even has streached out some... Now if engine or timing chain is being repeatedly abused, that is a different story...

Skrillah, If you are not racing your vehicle, I'll bet your chain will go 250,000 300K miles without 1 issue....no worries

Adam F

LOTS of misinformation here


Toyota produces some interference engines. The most popular example is the 18/20/22r series engine.


But just because it has a timing chain doesnt mean its interference. The 3rzfe has a chain yet it is non-interference

KZN185W

iTrader: (1)

Agree with Adam. not all Toyota engines using timing belts are non-interference. The 2L-TE 2.4L TD is an interference engine that uses a timing belt.

A guy in Oz went to 165,000 km (102,484 miles) with the old belt and when it went kaput, he had to replace the engine as it was cheaper than fixing the damage. Toyota recommends 100,000 km (60,000 miles) as replacement time for the belt.

DeathCougar

iTrader: (23)

Which is why I was talking about gasoline timing belt engines. Read all of my posts.

Besides that, we were speficially talking about the 3.4L. A non-interference belt drive quad cam 24 valve engine.

I think I know a *little* about Toyota engines.

icerunner

Hey,
I don't think I questioned your knowledge of engines. I think this is just a difference of opinion I have been burned 2 times with timing belts so for me It is a matter of preference. I love my 3.4L but I would love it even more if it had a timing chain...Just my preference in my experience, Chains don't typically break too often. Been burned real bad by timing belts I personally don't trust them (interfearance or not) for me they are just a P.I.T.A. I just dont trust a rubber belt to tell my engine what to do...A little bias I guess. I'll put up with it on my 3.4L because it is a non interfearance engine and at 140K Miles, the engine has proven to be absolutly bomb proof... Actually I think we aggree for the most part, I don't think you would go out of your way to buy a Interfearence engine with a timeing belt...? Obviously my girl friend didn't know what she was buying, She and I learned the hard way...
Paid a lot extra at 58K for OEM Waterpump, Oem timing belts, oem Tensioners ,oem pullies and 1 dam bolt was neglected and not torqued properly.... and like clock work 12K later....
BAM...right in the kisser... expensive and very long lesson for me, and never again...

icerunner

double post