Before I get called a dummy...this question is strictly because of what I was told this afternoon by my dealership's service dept. They just ran a full Used Car Inspection, and the service manager called me saying that my FAN BELT was wearing / cracking and that I should replace it. Now, as far as I know, the fan on a SC400 has a hydroulic fan, and does not have a belt...so I don't get it what he was saying...I asked for a copy of the diag., and on there, the tech. marked the box next to the DRIVE BELTS, indicating that I needed to replace one.

Is this just a mistake by the service guy who called me? Did he actually meen that I needed to replace a drive belt? Or was he taking me for a dummy, and was he just gonna try to charge me for replacing a fan belt in a car that doesn't have one?

I'm planning on taking my car into the local Toyota dealership and I'll have the service guys there take a look at my belts...this has been bugging me all day...just wanted to see what you guys think of this whole situation...

 

Engine question < engine forum

 

They used to all be called fan belts, then they became accessory belts, and because they snake all over the place, some call them serpentine belts.

They are also about the easiest things to inspect/replace on our cars- no need for the stealership to get involved. Use the search feature for more details.

 

I assume he was talking about the serpentine belt. Just buy it and replace it yourself.

Ed

 

Ahh...that makes sense! Thanks a bunch...They were gonna charge me $149.00!! $90 labor / $59.00 part!!! Crazy........

 

i beleive carson toyota has the belt for under 50 shipped and you can replace it urself in under 5 minutes

 

$90 in labor for a serpentine belt?!?!!! That kinda stuff makes me want to crack a mechanic's skull with a wrench What a frickin' rip-off...$90 for something he's gonna do in 7 minutes tops...I'd never go back to that shop dude, NEVER!

 

Even the $59 portion for the belt is outrageous. It should be half that at irontoad.com or rockauto.com. There's also a great place in Glendale, BMA Auto Parts, if you are local: http://www.bmaautoparts.com/.

If you replace the belt before it breaks, you can fold it up and seal it in a plastic bag. You can then tuck that package into that area forward of the radiator and just behind the styrofoam bumper. That way, you'll always have a spare belt in the unlikely event the new belt fails.

More details on this thread:
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...hreadid=100100

 

Aren't the SC's fans belt driven? So it could be a fan belt. Possibly easily installed by yourself anyway but just a thought.

 

"ELECTRIC FAN CONVERSION: Summit Racing catalog sells a bolt-on Flex-a-lite 210 dual electric engine fan kit for ~$190, which replaces the stock belt-driven engine fan. This modification gives you an extra two inches of clearance in front of the engine block (good for forced induction setups), and relieves the engine of about 20-30 horsepower. - (info provided by Hermosa). This mod has been shown to work on the SC300; However, the SC400 fan mounts are slightly different. This modification is currently untested in the SC400." - intellexual.net/faq.html
Belt driven. Too bad the mod hasn't been tested on a SC4...

 

Well, if you were to test it out, DM, you'd then discover that the SC400's fan is driven hydraulically, as cheungsta mentioned in his first post.

 

Damn you intellexual.net.... making me look like a fool...
So they are hydraulic driven?
Is there a fan upgrade that us 400 ownes can get?

 

Now now.... Rich (author of intellexual.net) is one helpful guy and far from damnable.

In any case, the V8 fan does not draw much power at all from the engine under normal conditions, so such an "upgrade" would be mostly cosmetic. But if that is what you are after, almost any correctly-sized electric kit will work.

 

Oh I don't mean to say Rich is uninformative, I probably just misunderstood. That site is one of the greatest things to hit all SC owners. He kinda helps the SC4s alot more too.

As said on intellexual, this leaves for more space for force induction, woot supercharger!