Jolzer

My 95 es300 has 140k miles on it and had the timing belt and water pump replaced at 92k. I did not own the car then so I do not know if the idler pulleys were replaced as well. The engine makes this weird whine noise at almost all times and has since i got the car at 110k miles. my mechanic says the car runs fine so I should not worry about it.

I found this youtube video of a 94 es that makes the exact noise as mine and one of the comments mentions it has a bad idler pulley.
My question is, is this really a bad idler pulley, and how long can the car go before I should replace it? Can I wait until 180k miles when I change the timing belt?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

ES300NZ

that video is of another car to your own, it's best if you take your own video and upload it.

- noise's like that can a accessory belt which is too tight, or like you say idlers.
- get a second opinion if you are concerned.

Oro

I cannot diagnose yours, but I can say that a bad idler pulley and/or tensioner can cause a failed belt very quickly; had it happen to me - thankfully on a non-interference engine.

The root cause in my case was that though the belt and H20 pump were changed, the Acura dealer who did the change did not replace the idler or tensioner (it was in fact NOT part of the FSM to do it back then - '02). It now is. . Though this was not a Toyota/Lexus, it was Japanese, though, and the exact same Aisin tensioner as these cars use. They can easily fail in two timing belt intervals (mine went about 140k I think).