Trexus

Hello All (Maybe Pheonix can help out),

I have a question. Is it rare that a cam gear can break?

Reason, I recently took my 1996 ES 300 which has 275,000 miles on the odometer to have the timing belt and waterpump replaced last Saturday, 2/3/07. Three days later my car started knocking really loud and then it stopped.

I had to have my car towed to the dealership and they inspected it and stated that the cam gear (sprocket) shattered. I'm thinking that they must have put the timing belt way too tight and it put stress on the cam gear which eventually lead to a crack then broke. It should be under warranty for the timing belt they just replaced. They're still working on my car and I haven't got a chance to talk to them they just left a message on my voice mail. I totally baby my car, do all the necessay maintenance and I don't drive my car hard. I couldn't have caused the breaking of the cam gear right? Please advise me and let me know your thoughts. Thanks in advance for your help.

Trexus

Any thoughts or feedback on my situation?

Trexus

Update: I called Lexus this morning and they will replace the cam gear under the warranty and reimburse me for the towing. I feel so relieved. I may have been inconvenienced but Lexus of Freemont went out of their way to rectify my situation.

Pheonix

You are correct. They installed the timing belt incorrectly.

Mine did that also. I think Toyota gave me the wrong belt. It was too tight, but I did get on it & running. When it started jumping & snapped it sheared the pin on the end of the cam off. (That holds the sprocket in time & keeps it from rotating out of sync of the cam.) Also destroyed the sprocket bigtime.

Trexus

Thanks enormously Pheonix for replying to this thread. I wanted your feedback and opinion on this matter.

My good friend said the same thing. Most likely the dealer put the wrong timimg belt (ex. putting a 1997 timing belt instead of a 1996 one). Either way Lexus will fix it under warranty and reimburse me the tow fee. Do you think they have new technicians working there? I'm assuming they should be ASE certified and have experience working on Lexus cars. I know I have an older model and they probably don't see too many of our older model vehicles, others can take it to Toyota or to other mechanics.

Lexus will be calling me late this afternoon to let me know the work will be completed. I look forward to driving my 1996 ES 300 very soon. Thanks again...

Pheonix

Unless you know somebody, to work at a Toyota dealer from the beginning, you must complete the 2 year T-Ten program. At the end of which you're ASE anyways.
http://www.toyota.com/about/tten/index.html

@ that mileage, I'd start to consider replacing the idler pulleys & tensioner.






They see more of that than any other vehicle. Same engine family on all of the v6 ES & RX's, which pretty much single handidly float Lexus.
https://www.clublexus.com/index.php?...460&Itemid=183
Last month 11,864 of 22,118 were ES's, or RX's. (Camry/Highlander)



Probably just gave them the wrong belt like I always thought happened to me.
Sometimes they just dont go on smoothly for no apparant reason. Sometimes they're on in less than a minute with very little effort.