ironlexus

Hi,

the owner of a car I will buy says that it has a timing chain, is that possible on an 05 LS 430 ?

Thanks !!

Striker223

Totally impossible if the car doesn't have an engine that was swapped in from another car

ironlexus

its the original engine but he says it was originally made with a timing chain. is there any way to verify this if i got the vin number ?

ironlexus

he says his mechanic looked and saw a timing chain but it seems impossible that this car has a chain so maybe the mechanic made an error which seems strange.

bradland

No need to verify it's a moot point. The owner is simply misinformed.

As Striker said, if the car has the engine it rolled off the factory floor with it definitely, without question, has a timing BELT.

KO21

If he is lying and made that up, consider that anything else he said about the car is also a lie.

rkw77080

Factory 2005 LS430 engine has a timing belt. Here is a YouTube video (not mine) on how you can quickly differentiate the two engine types.

Striker223

The entire UZ V8 family of engines was a belt driven system. If you have any from of UZ in there it has a belt

ironlexus

thanks, you guys are awesome !

stay safe

ls430w140

Look for other “red flags” from this owner before buying this car

YODAONE

He is telling you this, not because it has a timing chain, but because he knows it has a timing belt that is past it's change by date..and will cost about $1,500 to perform necessary timing belt/waterpump service.

Obtain an estimate for timing belt service from dealer and present it to him as part of price negotiation.

Alternatively, if seller is unaware it actually has a timing belt, then he doesn't know when, if ever it was changed, as a basis to justify your receiving a price reduction.

Interference engine will destroy itself if timing belt breaks.

Trilkb

Id just move on. Some people are just ignorant and incredibly stubborn.

All I would tell him is to find a new mechanic, because the engine does not have a timing chain and i would question the work of his mechanic at that point.

Johnhav430

I remember once I asked if the Honda I was interested was 4 or 6 cyl. Seller said it's a V4. I decided not to make any wise comments and realized this was a snake oil salesman, who would likely one day sell mattresses once the internet got invented.

infojunky

Put the VIN in and check what maintenance has been done.
https://drivers.lexus.com/lexusdrivers

Hotboy1

fix.t........