And what you are proposing is to keep a few cents in your pocket instead of reducing your chances of any of these things happening to you.
The OP is choosing between spending $200 now in order to put off a $1000 t-belt job by 3 years or 30,000 miles, or reusing a water pump, tensioner, etc, that are a third of the way through their life.
Also if I were the shop doing the work I would offer no warranty my work without t-belt/wp replacement.
I kinda have mixed feeling on the topic. I have had a couple of vehicles with non interference engines where I only did the belt. I did all the work myself and the belts were not difficult to change. One engine went 306k miles (Toyota).
But on vehicles that had interference engines, I did the whole shebang. Even though logic told me that I would probably get away with a belt only every other belt change, doing it all prevented me from losing sleep worrying if I made the right choice. A good nights sleep has value too.
Sureā¦why would you? The biggest expense (money or your personal time) is labor. One of those parts that you didnāt replace when you were just replacing the timing belt brakes (even 2 years down the road)ā¦now you have to tear into the front of engine again to replace that part. It makes zero sense to NOT replace those parts.
I think that may be overstating it a bit. Itās quite possible the tensioner, idler pulley, and water pump will remain functional until the next timing belt replacement. And if any of those parts fail before, there will usually be noticeable symptoms, so whatever failed can be replaced then.
Common sense says to replace all that stuff b/c of the risk of it failing and bringing the car to a halt, perhaps incurring danger to the drive and occupants. And the labor cost of timing cover removal and replacement should something need to be repaired. But if a person drove by themselves, no other occupants, and stayed in town most of the time, and no obvious problems upon inspection of those parts during the belt job, probably worth the risk.
While thereās no cash payment for you work, thatās not the same as saying your labor is free. While diyāer-ing you are giving up other opportunities to make money for example. Judges/courts etc generally wonāt allow someone to charge for their own time, while allowing thelawyers to charge for their time. But thatās done I think b/c diy-ering is not the way the American economy is supposed to work by political design. Politicians want everyone to forget diyāering, instead get a job, receive a paycheck, pay others to do the work, then they can tax you for your effort in earning income. And they can tax the otherās income too. And they can add sales tax for each job as well.
I visited my Suby dealer this past month for some routine maintenance and I asked about spark plugs. The service writer is a good guy and very willing to share info. He told me as we looked at a boxer engine sitting on the ground, that doing plugs is sort of a big deal. Older Subies needed the engine pulled and on newer ones they lift up the engine to do them. So, my opinion is to ask the mechanic if it makes sense to do those on this overhaul as well. Then you are pretty much done!
Which is one good reason WHY I do it myself!
Iād have to earn at least 2 to 3 times the shop hourly rate to pay that rate. I was well paid at my job but I wasnāt making 3x the local shop hour! I am retired now so the time is immaterial. Good thing because I am slower now.
There is satisfaction in learning to do things for yourself.
Watching tv show last night, professor interviewing for an assistant
Student: Why is it you want me as your assistant?
Professor: When most students donāt understand something, they frown. When you donāt understand, you smile.
Possibly. But why take the risk. Youād be spending 5% of the total cost NOWā¦or potentially spending 95% MORE later.
My first Subaru ('96) was more reliable than any of my previous cars, and that list included a Honda Accord. While I did have to have the head gaskets replaced at ~130k miles, that was the only repair that the car ever needed. Because of its reliability, I bought my second Outback in 2003, and that car never needed any repairs in the 110k miles that I drove it.
I just traded-in my third Outback, after 12 years/130k miles, and the only repair that it ever needed was the replacementāunder warrantyāof the WW fluid reservoir. That vehicle was rock-solid, and I would have bought another Subaru if they offered a plug-in hybrid that I liked. (They do sell a Crosstrek plug-in, but I didnāt want something that small).
I am very happy with my new Lexus NX450h+ plug-in hybrid, and I hope that it proves to be as reliable as my Subarus were. Since I picked it up on November 10, Iāve driven it 725 miles, and because I charge it every night, my gas usage has been minimal.
Theoretically, I have enough gas left for 258 miles, but because most of my driving is w/in its 40 mile battery-only range, I estimate that I probably wonāt be filling the tank for a few more weeks, most likely giving me at least 1,200 miles on the first tank of gas.
Very nice car. Toyota remains the standard against which hybrids are measured, so chances are good.
Congrats with the new car. I wish you the best of luck with it.
Thank you to both of you.
In case anyone is interested, the acceleration in EV mode is more than adequate, even when I have it set for āEconā.
If I change it to āNormalā, the acceleration is very impressive.
After I have put a lot more miles on it, I will try āSportā, which engages both of the electric motors and the gas engine, and which yields 304 total hp. The mfr claims a zero-60 time of 5.6 seconds, but the car mags have timed it at 5.4 seconds, so while I will be able to drive it very economically most of the time, if I want to play Boy Racer, I will be able to do it.
When I first saw that the oil change regimen for this vehicle is 12 months/10k miles, I was sure that I would do the oil changes at about half that interval, but now that I calculated that the gas engine has actually run on only 4 or 5 days in the month that I have driven it, and that all of those gas excursions were expressway runs of anywhere from 40-70 miles, I think that the mfrās oil change regimen is reasonable. What do you think?
Good luck w/your car, seems like a good one. Just curious, is there a Toyota-branded similar version?
Itās mechanically identical to the Rav-4 Prime. However, the Lexus version has better seats, better ride quality, better handling, and a lot more bells and whistles. Plus, Iām not a fan of the boxy styling of the Rav.
Iām a big fan of following the mfrās oil change routine. But that means following it to the letter. Using a factory equivalent filter (more important that most people realize), using the proper oil, keeping it topped up as needed, and reading the fine print to understand which maintenance schedule (standard or severe) you should follow. You canāt just drop by Joeās Quick Lube, throw on a white-box filter, dump 5 qts of bulk 5W30 in and call it good.
I was recently involved in a customer complaint where a dealership was accused of unneeded upsells. Customer is indignant, spewing nonsense like ā(OEM) states that the oil should be changed every 7500 miles and these rip-offs are telling me that it needs to be done every 5000.ā Apparently the customer canāt read well enough to understand the severe service schedule, which would apply to anybody who drives to work daily in the Seattle metro area.
Iām not familiar enough with Toyota/Lexus oil life monitor system to say Iām 100% behind it, but I have no reason not to trust it. I will say that for our 2006 and 2018 GM cars, I simply use the correct oil, follow the OLM and change oil when the life gets below 10%. For my 2006 Chev, the way I drive, that can be anywhere from 4000 to 8000 miles.
That has always been my practice.
I would NEVER patronize one of those joints. Plus, my car calls for 0w-16 full synthetic oil, and itās doubtful that one of those joints would even have it in stock.
ā¦ which we have seen time and time again in this forum, from people who have apparently never opened their Ownerās Manual or maintenance booklet, and then they accuse mechanics of trying to cheat them. Itās pretty sad, in my opinion.
Thatās good to hear. The mfrās app on my phone tells me everything from current odometer mileage, to todayās mpg reading, to whether there are any recalls, to when I should service the vehicle, so it should be interesting to see when it tells me to change the oil.
I get a free tire rotation and multi-point inspection at 6 months/5k miles, and a free oil change/tire rotation/cabin filter change/multipoint inspection at 12 months 10k miles, but if the algorithm tells me to come in for service sooner, I definitely will do it.
