97 ES300 Timing belt kit
My regular mechanic who works out of his house on weekends thinks he won't have time to do replace my timing belt, water pump and cam/crank seals. TRQ on Youtube made an excellent DIY video from begining to end to replace it yourself. I watched the video.
I could do this job myself if I borrow a harmonic balancer pulley. He uses a oxyacatylene torch to get the bolt off. All I have is Map gas. Anyway what would you guess a Toyota delaership would charge for this job versus a regular mechanic. I've heard upwards of $2000. I only paid $2400 for the car 7 years ago. The car is started to get pretty rusty. Not sure if this is worth doing at this point? I have put a lot of work into it over the years. I worry that I could put on the new kit and after a weeks worth of work, it could still knock.

 

Are your crank and cam seals leaking?

 

I don't really know. If they do, it ain't much, but it's the kinda thing where, if it's all apart, you just do it anyway for safe measure. The parts prices don't scare me, it's the potential dealership labor, versus car value. The video mentions the front crank pulley versus rear have different torque ratings which I'm pretty sure every mechanic, dealership or not is gonna completely ignore. There's only 1 local mechanic I trust and he's unavailable. If I can find someone to do it for $1300 and under, I may go for it.

 

It’s not actually like that. If seals are not leaking, changing them introduces a non-zero chance of creating leaks. Doing crank and cam seals on these is really unnecessary. I was trained by old heavy diesel and locomotive mechanics, that was their mantra and it has never failed me to any disconcerting degree. I have two of these engines ,one with 340k mi and one with 190k mi. Never changed them, and they are fine.

So cut the job down to the necessities - which really are the belt and tensioner, tbh. Then it’s much more manageable.

 

Crank and cam seals are not a big job. However, in your case I'd just throw a belt on it because you said the car is rusty. To add, the crank pulley walked off in my case without any help (heat) so don't assume it will be a roadblock.

Cost? Indy said $2,200. Yeah...no on a car I paid $4500, so I did it myself, all parts replaced.

 

Oro, I noticed a leak on the timing belt side after I messed around with the alternator (I was trying to replace the belt but ended up not doing it because I couldn't get the alternator to drop down). But I kind of suspect that my disturbing that area led to a leak . Do you think that is possible? The area was already leaky but I think that I may have caused it to get worse to where it now leaks onto the floor.

 

Unlike some chain drive or other designs, there’s no oil inside the belt area. It would be a leak from above, most likely. The alternator doesn’t correspond to any oil passages, or mount into anything with an oil seal behind it. It wouldn’t affect an oil leak in any way.

The alternator has a locking bolt on the adjuster, the adjusting bolt, then a pivot bolt (the main attachment point). If all get loosened, then the alternator should (maybe with a bit of persuasion) swing loose to allow belt removal. It takes a bit of feeling around as the lowest bolts are difficult to see, IIRC.

 

I actually just changed that belt today. As Oro said make sure the locking bolt and pivot bolt are loosened. For me, I had to loosen the adjusting bolt ALOT in order to drop the alternator enough to get the new belt on. That adjuster bolt is very long so just loosen it alot. grab the alternator and yank it up and down. And I don't see how any of this could possible cause an oil leak.

 

Good info. I definitely loosened all 3 bolts, and I was sure that the adjuster was loose enough - but maybe I need to turn it a few more times. All bolts were loose enough to turn by hand.
The alternator did wiggle upwards a little, but not downwards, which is what confused me. There also seems to be some wiring under/behind the alternator and I was worried about crushing it.

 

That's good actually. When you loosen the adjuster the weight of the alternator will naturally move it downward. you will not be able to move it downward by hand, only upward. So I think the issue you had was thinking that because you couldn't move the alternator downward you weren't loosening it. When it is loose you will be able to move it upwards. When it is tightened you can't move it at all. I hope that all makes sense.