dv-

Was asking my mechanic about timing belts and recommended replacement intervals; he mentioned that some cars have a cover that's relatively easy to remove, or a "trap door" that makes it easy to inspect the timing belt. (For signs of wear.)

Does the 3.5L have such a thing? Since my TL is 7 years old but only has 50k miles on it, I wouldn't mind being able to keep an eye on this.

csmeance

yes it does!

losiglow

iTrader: (1)

Well, sort of. There's a hole on the side of the timing belt covers where you can see the belt and cam gear, but that only gives you a side profile of the belt. Unless it's pretty badly worn or damaged it might not give you a good idea of the belts condition. The only other option I've found is simply to remove the timing belt cover itself. The front cam timing belt cover is held on by 5 bolts which are in a bit of a tight spot on the passenger side of the engine. They're not too bad to get off but may take a bit of fanagling with a 10mm socket.




Ignore the "remove the drive belt" part. That's not necessary.

Once you remove that cover, you'll have full view of the belt. Normally wear is pretty well distributed throughout the belt. In other words, it's not likely you're going to see some sort of major damage. Whatever one length of the belt looks like, the other lengths are probably going to look the same. But if you want to inspect the whole belt, you can then turn the crank pulley with a breaker bar or ratchet and a few extensions. Don't try to turn the cam pulley in order to turn the belt. That could cause the belt to skip a tooth or two on the crank gear.

dv-

Cool; thank you both!

alxhastngs

Yep the small little viewport they provide isn't going to let you inspect much. I think it is really only there so you can align the cam gears at TDC for valve adjustments without removing the covers.

Thing is you want to inspect the other things aside from just the timing belt, as there are additional more common issues behind the timing belt cover that will lead to failure. I would look for leaking hydrualic tensioner, water pump leaks, and for any oil leaking through the camshafts/crankshaft seals.

If your willing to remove the timing belt covers to inspect the belt, you are half way there already to doing the job itself. Parts are less than $300 for the Aisin kit. Personally I would plan on replacing soon, within a few years, just as a precaution.