PCW

Since it appears your LS is 12 years old I'd have it done. If the belt breaks your engine is gone! And as you may know the belts are made of rubber. It will give you a piece of mind! Also have the water pump replaced as it's exposed when they remove all the parts for the TB. I have a 2001 LS with 86K on it and had it done two years ago just for the age issue of the belt.

EuroSS

From what I've read and other users posting info it seems it's very rare for the timing belt to fail or break. The common failure is either the timing idler or the water pump idler. I'm not aware if the belt could stretch overtime and skip a tooth/gear causing a catastrophic engine failure. I remember reading on the forums stated that the idlers or the belt stretching has a probability of around 50% failure rate at 150k. Multiple people have also confirmed after inspected the belt during 100k plus interval change, it could still have gone many more miles.

Johnhav430

Not at all rocket science, it's the environment and if it's conducive to a quality job. Even if there is a 95% chance the job is fine, I prefer the indie, and as a last resort, Lexus (never ouch). To me it's the same as taking a Caddy to a Chevy dealer--they will work on it and many components are the same if not identical. My only encounter with Toyota was for a state inspection, and they charged more (in PA we pay) than BMW, while BMW provides a loaner. Just me, no warm and fuzzy feeling about Toyota dealerships.

Pretty sure any indie would match the price, at most, they are discounting $200, at best, $50.

TriC

The most highly regarded Asian specialty shop in the metro area quoted $1300 for the job, about $200 less than the Lexus store price. Apparently the market here is different than yours.

Suggest you start your own topic about different repair shop merits. The purpose of this thread is to determine what to have done when the car goes in tomorrow, not who should do it.

TriC

UPDATE: The job was completed yesterday at Germain Toyota in Columbus at 64632 miles. Both of the Lexus dealerships here are also owned by the Germain family. Although I requested that the idlers and tensioner be replaced if they showed any sign of wear, they were not replaced. As reported by others, the old timing belt shows no sign of fraying or cracking and is quite supple. No doubt it could have lasted for several years.

The total bill was $779.33, broken down as follows: $310.93 for labor; $389.02 for parts ($59.95 for the timing belt, $219.15 for the water pump, $84.93 for the serpentine belt, and $24.99 for anti-freeze); a $25.00 shop supply fee; and $54.38 in sales tax.

As mentioned in the initial post, this was a Black Friday service special. Their normal charge for the same work would have been a bit over $1030 with tax.