Ls400 Cambelt?

[macky68]

Hi all

I have been the proud owner of a 96 ls400 for nearly 4 years . I paid £1100 & all I have spent out Is 4 new tyres 2 bonnet struts & a new Battery . I don't do many miles a year (it had 108,000 on the clock when I purchased & now has 124,000 on the clock) I have done routine maintenance myself . Do I need to change the cambelt? The service history gives a change at 59,000 miles. If so how difficult is it ? Should I ask a main dealer to carry out the work? If so , how much is it likely to cost? I have owned many cars over the years but none comes even close to my Lexus

[steve2006]

Yes the cam belt is due for replacement (every 60,000 or 6 years which ever comes 1st)

It's worth ringing your local Lexus dealer as they sometimes have offers on for older models or if you know of a good independent garage get a quote from them.

Get the full monty kit and I would also recommend replacing the water pump at the same time.

You could buy the parts yourself (the USA is cheaper but take into account delivery times/charges plus possible VAT courtesy of HMRC/RM) and then get the garage to fit them.

Oh nearly forgot Welcome to the LOC :)

[Mybikes a cx500]

It's a big job, do some googling and youtubing and you will see, and searches on here

Lots of discussion on when to change, my waterpump had 200k on it and was only making an occasional noise, the cambelt looked like new after 100k miles.

One of the idlers was noisy, probably original, so 200k.

every 100k or 10 years would be my personal "feel good" figures.

Definately replace the tensioner and idler pulleys and waterpump whilst in there

Cost is usually between 600 and over 1000

[Chris CPT]

It's a big job, do some googling and youtubing and you will see, and searches on here

Lots of discussion on when to change, my waterpump had 200k on it and was only making an occasional noise, the cambelt looked like new after 100k miles.

One of the idlers was noisy, probably original, so 200k.

every 100k or 10 years would be my personal "feel good" figures.

Definately replace the tensioner and idler pulleys and waterpump whilst in there

Cost is usually between 600 and over 1000

I'm looking at an LS with around 115,000 miles on it. Apparently the cambelt was replaced at 60,000 miles. Because of the 'lower' milage at 115k, could I get away with replacing just the belt, or do you think it needs the waterpump, tensioner and idler pulleys done at the same time too?

As a side note, I'll only be doing around 3,000 miles per year at the very most in it.

PS. If I do, I'll replace them myself if it isn't a crazily-hard job. Are there any good How-To guides on here on how to replace those?

Thanks, Chris

[Andy TT]

See http://www.lexls.com/tutorials/engine/timingbelt.html