Is this the 1999 Toyota Sienna?
The maintenance guide shows 90,000 miles/72 months for timing belt service replacement.
The timing belt was due for replacement in 2005, 2011, 2017 and 2023. If you replace the timing belt tomorrow, it probably won’t be too soon.
@bcohen2010
Yep, that makes perfect sense: trade-in right when the timing belt was due for replacement. But there were a couple extra steps before I bought it.
After I bought the car, I took it to my regular independent mechanic and asked him to replace the timing belt because it was totally unknown. But I mentioned to him that if - when he got in there – the belt looked distinctly new, please call me. This was at a time when money was very tight for me.
In a couple hours, he called to say the belt looked very good, and he only needed to replace the drive belts. That was about 55k miles ago.
After that, by chance, I found out where the car had been serviced previously, a Toyota dealership. I got some history.
The last service on record - an oil change - was in 2014, a year before I bought the car from a flaky little car dealer 100 miles from the “dealership”. The dealership had a record of a new belt in 2009, but none after. And a lot of miles between the belt job, and the oil change.
I think you described exactly what happened: the original owners traded the car in at the dealership, when – as you suggest – it was due for a new t-belt.
So I’m guessing that someone bought the car and the belt failed in just a year. Then, in 2015, the sleazy car dealer picked it up at an auction for pennies, slapped in a belt, and advertised it on Craigslist for cheap because the odometer was dead. So I’d only had the car a few months when I went to the mechanic for the belt replacement.
If that’s right, after accounting for a few extraneous other details, the current belt has – at most – 60k on it.
I so wish I could be sure of that!
Yes it is the Sienna, good call!
And I was wondering about the time interval. Thanks for this info.
Unlikely the timing belt that was installed in 2009 would have failed in 2015, they last a lot longer than that. I have seen many Toyotas that were 15 years old/150,000 miles with the original timing belt.
Then how would you explain a newish looking belt in late 2015, which is what the mechanic found?
Timing belts can still look new when it is time to replace them, you can’t rely on appearance. Serpentine belts sometimes have good looking printing on them after ten years, appearance is not a good indication of age.
The Carfax is only as good as what’s reported by dealers and the independant shops that report to them, not every shop does but the one’s that show on a carfax can include all the items for that service including the timing belt.
And even that can be inaccurate. When my parents went to trade their 02 Camry in on a newer one, they told the salesman they had the car since new. The salesman ran a Carfax, and said “you said you bought this car new? My Carfax says you are the 3rd owner.” My parents bought the car at that same dealership. I ended up buying the car from my parents.
If CarFax data shows a vehicle was in an accident, then there’s a high probability it was. Th problem with CarFax is what’s NOT on the report. CarFax get’s their data from insurance companies and dealers, national chain garages like PepBoys and some independent garages. That means there’s a whole lot of data out there that’s NOT being reported. Also, some states have laws about the data insurance companies can share with third parties like Carfax - so in those states any accidents will NOT show up on a Carfax report.
Use it as ONE source…not THEE source. My personal opinion is you’d be better off getting the vehicle inspected from a good mechanic. They’d be far more accurate.
There is one feature of Carfax that can be quite useful . The dealer we bought our 2018 Ford Fiesta from uses Carfax . We get reminders about time for service , a reminder for the Tag sticker and any recalls that might be needed .
That service could be useful for those people who have a lot on the mind or just not geared to keep track of stuff .
+1
In addition to information that is never reported to Carfax, there is the reality of incorrect info.
Our late friend, OK4450, mentioned that he decided to look at the Carfax info on a Saab that he had owned since it was new, and Carfax reported that it had been stolen a couple of years earlier. I recall him saying that he was gazing at the Saab in his driveway while he was checking Carfax.
When I have access to CarFax, I use it only to rule out a potential purchase. You can definitively prove a positive but not a negative… 
Exactly. I use it to see if there’s a red flag on a car. Might that data be in error? Maybe, but no reason to try and figure that out. Find another car without the red flag, then get it checked out.
He purchased the car used. With those tales of hiding vehicles from finance companies, can you imagine OK4450 owning a car with a sordid history?
“The SAAB was shown to be “stolen” even though I bought it from the original owner; an AIr Force captain who said it had never been heisted. The local DMV also showed it to have never been stolen.”
Can’t speak to every timing belt configuration, but the one on my Corolla, even after just a few thousand miles, it is very clear the belt is slightly worn. The cogs have slightly rounded edges, new belt cogs aren’t. You are correct in terms of the Corolla at least, the cog’s appearance, rounded or otherwise, doesn’t say anything about the belt’s age. An aged belt could break even if the cogs look new. Sometimes put some twisting force on the belt will show cracks developing on either surface, or more likely along the edges, indicating the belt is well aged and in need of replacement. Whether to replace a questionable belt or not, it’s a gamble. Must consider the advantages and disadvantages.
@VDCdriver
It was nice to be reminded of OK4450. I was aware last year of his absence from the forum, and then confirmation of his passing. I followed this board more regularly early in this century, and quickly recognized his expertise, and integrity. I miss his input.
In 2012 I bought a 2010 Cobalt from a dealer. It had a CarFax report available from the dealer. I reviewed it closely and saw that all services were performed by the same dealer based on the mileage between service visits. There was also an even date spread in visits indicating that the car was not parked for an extended period of time as might be the case if an accident occurred. I say this because it had only 10,000 miles in a 2 year old car. In this particular case the CarFax was trustworthy.
I also used CarFax to check out used cars in 2017 when I needed my next car. The reports showed me that several cars I was considering from one local dealer (Maryland) came from around NYC and all had pervious accident damage. I crossed them all off my list. Still, I would be very skeptical of any CarFax for the reasons stated above. It can be useful but doesn’t replace a prepurchase inspection of any vehicle including CPO cars by a good independent shop. In this case I mean not the selling dealer’s shop.
@jtsanders
Good illustrations, useful information for future reference. Thank you.
I’ve received useful answers to my issue, which was mostly that CarFax would have been very unlikely to have any info that would be useful for me answering the key question: when was the last timing belt change.
As Nevada_545 points out, t-belt replacement would be due now based on time - regardless of mileage - even if I’d replaced the belt the day I bought the Sienna in Sept 2015. So my original quest to find out IF the belt was replaced shortly before I bought it is irrelevant, it’s due based on time. So I’ll bite the bullet and have that done.
Beyond that, I’m inclined to follow reasoning above that suggests that the belt probably had not been changed in the year before I bought the car, which I’d originally thought was likely based on what my mechanic had seen when he started the job and backed out because the belt looked very good. So the last belt replacement was - as reported by the dealer - 2009.
Just for curiosity, I watched enough of a Youtube video on this job for this generation Sienna and easily decided not to spend another 15 minutes watching the video, there was no way I would be doing this myself.
But I’m glad to have a better understanding of what Carfax can and can’t do. Useful for ruling OUT, maybe not much else.
Thanks to all,
–– RoadTripper
Can’t speak to every timing belt configuration, but the one on my Corolla, even after just a few thousand miles, it is very clear the belt is slightly worn. The cogs have slightly rounded edges, new belt cogs aren’t.
George:
In this car, and likely many other Toyota models of similar vintage with the same engine, the timing belt is completely enclosed and not accessible for visual inspection. It takes a lot of time and effort to get in deep enough to just see the belt. So it’s not like belts you seem to be referring to, which are visible just by raising the hood.
My Corolla’s timing belt isn’t visible just by lifting the hood. But it can still be seen without too much work. First off, there’s an inspection plug in the timing belt cover. Remove that plug, can see the outside surface of the belt. That’s usually not good enough though. Next is to remove the valve cover. Then can see the belt on the camshaft pulley, and can twist it to see the edge and inner surface. That’s a pretty good assessment. If wanting better, the top part of the timing belt cover is fairly easy to remove for an excellent look at the belt. The bottom part of the timing cover is quite difficult to remove, have to remove crank pulley, but removing the bottom part is not necessary just for a timing belt inspection.
If your point is that it is best to replace a timing belt according to the manufacturer’s time/miles schedule, no dispute. & concur, replacing a timing belt (even on the Corolla) isn’t a good choice for most diy’ers, quite difficult job.