Time to replace a timing belt

THAT belt was on borrowed time. I have changed mine a little earlier than 'on time' each change but do realize that time is as important as mileage. If a person is piling on the miles to a new truck, 200K is not out of line. Past 10 yrs....mileage is moot, change it or inspect it. It may or may not look like the one above. Kind of depends on lots of factors and high heat is def. one. I know being in TX my tires look like that after 6-7 yrs so I would not be surprised in the least if a belt did too.

 

Yeah I agree! I just bought this truck in May! So I've been doing a lot of maintenance to it. I'm the 3rd owner and it is definitely the original belt. 20 years old! I live in Ontario Canada so it is pretty cold during the winter months.

 

20 yrs. old, I don't care if it had 5 miles on it,I'd change.

Edit: I don't know about in the cold...no experience there. Maybe it would be fine.

 

I am at 225,000 but we seldom get real cold weather .

I have been meaning to change it I just keep forgetting

then 60 hour work weeks being the normal not much gets done

 

I bought my 1995 Taco SR5 4x4 new. Plenty of towing and probably more off-roading than most. 175K miles and still on original belt. I've peaked behind the cover, doesn't look that bad - but maybe like the belt in the pictures in this thread (haven't tightly flexed it). I figure if I replace it preemptively I'd want to replace anything it might take with it (like the water pump) if it fails in-service. I'm planning on seeing how far it goes - if it fails, I'll tow it home with my Tundra.

 

is single digits in F not C real cold to you, do you see those temps?
here in middle USA is -1 to -10 over the next several days for the lows

 

you may have the longest originally owned tacoma on TW that i have seen yet
if you want, sign your truck into the 1995.5 how many are out there! topic

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/1995-5-tacomas-only-how-many-are-still-out-there.593038/

 

It's much more important for Hondas (or any other interference engine design) to be changed on time than Toyotas that usually have chains on engines that will be damaged. From additional reading I've gathered cold weather is WORSE on the belt than hot. Surprising to me but again, no experience in the cold stuff.

 

i should remove the TB cover to take a peak at what i have behind there, sorta coldish here like today, below zero
probably need to wait until i drain and fill radiator next to remove the top hose to check it?

 

I think it's easy enough to just peel back the cover and look but if yours is 23 yrs. old i'd just change it. Not today but weather permitting. Man......it's 73 here today kind of hard to imagine you're 75 less and not really that far away, if i went South the same distance it wouldn't be much different.

 

Only when it is in single digits F during the day for weeks as the high and down to -20 F or colder ever night you don`t get above freezing for weeks.

Throw wind into the mix all bets are off.

 

its been changed once so far less than 50k miles ago, i was at a salvage yard and tried to pull back the cover on a 3.4 without taking the upper hose off and the cover just cracked in half after removing 'most' of the bolts


the Alberta Clipper came down from the north real hard and clipped us lol
at least there was no bad ice here like Kansas City got

 

I and my truck have spent our time in northern Virginia (near Quantico). I'd say cold here is below 20F maybe on or two days a year the low goes below 10F; next few days here the low is 21F. I put a picture of my truck taken last spring in my avatar, unfortunately my 16 yr old tried to total it on her 2nd solo trip driving 2 weeks ago. Radiator is toast now - it has a nice imprint of the fan in it and a busted lower tank. Most everything pretty on the front end is bent up or broken and is in the bed now.

I was considering doing the timing belt now since almost everything in front of the water pump is off, but I want to make sure there's no major mechanical issues after I run her a bit with the new radiator. Might still end up selling her for scrap if it's too hard to get her to pass inspection, but I figure she'll be worth more if I can show she runs good (as she did before the accident).

 

thats not good to hear about the incident!

 

I posted the truck with a few before/after pics at:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...-still-out-there.593038/page-32#post-22499760