I have 95 T100 with 4WD and 67,000 miles. Put about 4000 miles/year. Timing belt was replaced by prior owner at 42,000 6 years ago and manual suggests replacing every 6 years. Do I need to now despite low mileage ? Looking at past answers my guess is yes.
Mechanic also tells me I have all original equipment hoses. Do I need to replace them too?
Do you like to gamble? I prefer preventative maintenance to costly repairs. If your mechanic has inspected the belt and hoses and thinks they need replacing I say go for it. It will cost you some now, but may save you a lot of time and money down the road.
wow! that is some low mileage! I’d do all I can to increase the life of this vehicle.
I’m not a mechanic, but it seems kinda early for previous owners to replace timing belt already. ??? strange.
preventive maint. is usually good maintenance. Tom and Ray said something a while back that i’m not disputing. they said that other parts will start to get jealous that something else is new and then they break themselves and it snowballs from there.
hoses often times tend to be easy to replace. that’s something you could probably do.
as far as timing belt, let’s see what some other guys, no doubt smarter than me, thinkn about that. hope to get one that knows toyotas. (that’s a toyota, right?)
good luck and baby that thing and she’ll baby you.
JP#3
Yes, that belt is made of rubber. Rubber does age and well get hard and brittle.
New belt a few hundred dollars, a new engine a few thousand dollars.
Do You Know If The Water Pump Was Replaced By The Previous Owner ?
At that age I’d replace the timing belt, T-belt idler pulley, T-belt tensioner pulley, T-belt tensioner (coil spring), crankshaft oil seal, both camshaft oil seals, and water pump. I’d have the coolant flushed and replaced at this time unless it was just done recently.
Any of the components under the timing belt cover that go bad can lead to doing just about the whole job over again or can lead to engine damage.
I just did this same procedure on my minivan whose mileage was also unusually low for its age. Everthing looked OK in there, but one idler pulley had a bit of play in it.
Just do it.
CSA
I would spend the money to get this baby in top shape and at the rate you drive you’re set for the next 20 years provided the rust does not catch up with you.
Happy motoring!
If you ever want to have the odometer read over 200K then you need to do the required maintenance. It would be a shame for a low mileage T100 to be seen rusting in an auto recycle yard with 70K on the clock. Maintenance is the key to a long life for any vehicle.
Do you NOT brush you teeth because you don’t see a problem today, only to learn for a fact later that you should have, and the advantages of having done so back then ?
Preventive maintainence is exactly what the words imply. You are not to wait for malfunctions, you are to avoid malfunctions.