under the timing belt cover, atleast for my motor, there is a tensioner pulley and another regular pully. both were being lubricated by my leaking water pump. well once my water pump was fixed and dry, those bearings dried up real fast (200 miles) and it was making a horiffic sound.

my mechanic (really good guy) said whenever he does a timing belt job, he always does the water pump and any pullys. he said its part of the kid that he buys from toyota (timing belt, water pump, pullys)

 

Hmm...I'll be sure to ask my dealer about that. I will for sure be doing the water pump though!

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I talked to my buddy at the Parts dept. at the dealer that I know, he said the water pump is a good idea to get done but he would recommend waiting until its all apart to see if I need to do the pulley's. I know the tech that's gonna be working on it so I'll just go back there and tell him to use his judgement.

Thanks for all the help guys! Saving me lots of money down the road! Yet...making me spend so much more money all the time!

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Friend of mine changed the belt on his car, but saved money by not doing the idler pulleys. Less than 5000 miles his daughter had a pulley sieze up and he had to pay a shop to redo it all (she was about 300 miles away)

 

Well...in all reality I probably will go ahead and have them replaced...but I will have my guys look at em and see what they think. At the most the pulley's will cost about 150 bucks to get done...not even that much actually, the tensioner is like 78 bucks and the other one is like 50...so...I dunno.

We shall see...keep advice coming in though, majority of the time I look to you guys over my good friends at the dealer...haha.

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I did my own t-belt service, water pump, thermostat, coolant, oil and idler pully/tensioner swap. I personally would change the pulleys in time with the water pump - every other tbelt change. The parental units were very good about swapping the water pump and timing belt, but never had the pulleys swapped. So when I cracked open the timing cover the first time on my 3vze at 247,000 miles, as I expected, both idler's bearings were shot and they showed scuff marks from the belt slipping across them...

The upper pully on a 3vze is a BITCH to get out if you dont yank the intake plenum...not sure on a 5vzfe.

Personally if you only have 97k on the truck I would wait on the water pump and idlers, they should last another 90k...at that point I WOULD swap them out irregardless of condition. Reason I say that is becuase toyota recommends that the water pump be changed at 140k or so or 2 timing belt changes for the 3vze. Again not sure on the 5vzfe.

BTW 180 seems REALLY steep for a water pump. I paid 190 for a new Tbelt, 2 idlers, water pump, new crank oil seal, and every gasket and o ring needed, shipped....

 

Do both now...if you do them separate the dealer make 2 times the labor...get it?

 

Yeah I will just go ahead and do everything...I think the overall conclusion is Just Do It.

So...the plan as of now is to do everything on Tuesday, thanks for all the help!

If you think of anything else that I might as well do while the tech's are in there just lemme know!

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