Hello, new to the forum, second thread. I just bought a 2000 ls400 and I don't know if the timing belt service was done at 180,000 or not. The car has a little under 188,000 miles and I do have a timing belt and water pump service planned for tomorrow, but I am super excited about the car. I am wondering how sensitive the car is to going over that service. Is it a ticking time bomb? or can I drive it to work tomorrow, show it off a little to my coworkers and take it to the mechanic safely? 70 miles round trip to work and back. Will I risk killing my engine?

 

I did my 180K at 187K a few years back. I think you'll be fine, I wouldn't lose sleep over 100 miles at this point, especially if it WAS done at 180,000.

 

Okay, that is reassuring. I can't imagine the the car is on the original timing belt either. That was floating in my mind earlier today. That would have been beef jerky by now. Thank you for the reply!

 

The amazing thing about these belts is that THEY aren't the weak link in the engine; it's the pulleys, tensioner, and water pump that will cause belt failure whenever one of the driven pulleys seizes up. You can visually inspect the belt by removing one of the front cam covers, which only takes a few minutes. But what you CAN'T determine is the condition of the other assemblies. The water pump usually begins leaking before bearing failure, but not always. So, it simply becomes a game of numbers; moving parts eventually wear out.
Some things will give you a warning, and you can live with the symptoms for awhile. Unfortunately, that's not the case with this design; all the marbles are on the table. The OEM parts have been known to last 250k miles, but like anything else, they could also crap out a week after replacing. This model is a great car. Learn from this forum, and learn to listen for strange noises.Good luck.

 

this is true, I changed mine at 200,000 and there was no issues either way...

 

My idler pulley failed at about 86k and took out the timing belt. It was 26 years old though...

 

my 1998 almost made it to 180k miles on the same timing belt/water pump.

I bought the car at 248k and timing belt had not been done since 100k .

finally did the timing belt job at 266k.

I think OEM timing belt/water pump parts last a bit longer than aftermarket , but as mention previously it is a numbers game.

Now I have a 1999 with 240k that I will be doing the timing belt job on soon as well, with no previously documented 90k maintenance.

 

Every timing belt is a ticking time bomb, but some have more time left than others.

Since nobody said it directly so far, yes, your 2000 is an interference engine so if the belt were to break you'd have serious engine damage. Not so for the 90-94's.

But I basically agree with what everyone else is saying. Not urgent.

 

Moments like that almost had me buy a 90-94 model. That really sucks that it gave out at 86k. Sending some empathy.

 

Thank you everyone for responding! So far this forum is really cool, and I feel like if something goes wrong later with the car I'll be able to figure out how to fix it. My LS is in the shop now getting a new timing belt. Driving to work and back was not a problem at all.

 

The belt it self will go maybe 140,000 or so, and like mentioned above a pulley bearing failure will change that quickly.