Cam Belt

[Gbneil]

My ls is on 67,000 miles with history, it has a cam belt sticker from 2007 with 27,000 miles...only 40,000 miles ago but, should it be done on time, ie it's 7 years since changed....there seems to be a lot of info, misinfo with regards this some saying ten years, some saying miles etc...

[scudney]

Change it as when due,it's either mileage or years whichever comes first,to be honest am surprised at the number of owners who ignore this simple rule eg 6 years or a 100,000 whichever comes first,dimples.

[goldtop]

1996 is a Mk3, which I think had a 6yr interval. The Mk4 is a 10yr interval. Same part?

Perhaps, or was something in the belt's path/stresses/etc that was tweaked to eke out a bit more life? Always hard to know, and I doubt anyone at Lexus could give you a cast-iron answer,. And with the Mk3 also having an interference engine design, you can't just run it until it breaks and then replace it.

Not sure I'm helping! ;)

[ColinBarber]

Change it as when due,it's either mileage or years whichever comes first,to be honest am surprised at the number of owners who ignore this simple rule eg 6 years or a 100,000 whichever comes first,dimples.

if the schedule is 60,000 miles (or 63,000 miles) then it is a 6 year interval. 100,000 miles or 10 years.

[Mybikes a cx500]

I think I read somewhere if it's the 60k 6 years cycle, then the water pump is changed every 2nd cycle.

For 10 years, 100k, its every time.

The only failure I ever read about was supposedly a seized pump that destroyed the belt.

My belt looked like a dirty new belt when I had it changed, perfect condition

[Malc]

I'm under the impression it is likely 100k miles / 10 years on whichever model.

UK says 63k miles / 10 years for exactly the same early year cars as US which says 100k miles / 10 years.

Dopey ain't it . ..... I'm personally going with 100k miles /10 years

Malc

[steve2006]

Strange thing is if you look in the owners manual there is no specific change interval mentioned on either A or B services,all that is mentioned is to check the belt condition at specific service intervals.

A lot of other manufacturers stretched (no pun itended) their belt change intervals and then discovered they were breaking before the time of replacement destroying the engine in the process and so reduced the recommended time/mileage intervals.

[Bluesman]

Strange thing is if you look in the owners manual there is no specific change interval mentioned on either A or B services,all that is mentioned is to check the belt condition at specific service intervals.

A lot of other manufacturers stretched (no pun itended) their belt change intervals and then discovered they were breaking before the time of replacement destroying the engine in the process and so reduced the recommended time/mileage intervals.

Cam belts are discussed on here probobly more than any other subject but I have never seen a thread where the belt has broken, is anybody aware of an LS400 with a broken Cam Belt? Mike

[Malc]

I did read a while ago, on the USA site I think, that the point of cambelt destruction on the Ls is 150k miles.

I've never read of one on here, or heard of one anywhere to my knowledge, going kaput.

Malc

[ColinBarber]

I've never heard of a failure in the UK, I've seen mention of failures in the US but also examples of vehicles with over 200,000 miles on the original belt.

Of the failures I have heard about I seem to recall they were caused by a seized water pump so it was only an indirect failure which would have occurred no matter what the age of the belt.

[ambermarine]

Just to put everything straight it was my 1990 LS that had a belt failure at 137k, 17k after being fitted due to a failed water pump this basically stripped the teeth from the belt and because there was valve clearance on the 89/92 engines did no damage to the engine.Lexus (Arnold Clark who are no longer Lexus franchises) did not reccomend the water pump renewal at the time of the belt change but I did get a whining sound from that part of the engine for a few weeks before it failed.

On my new Mark 4 bought two years ago with 19k on the clock and thirteen years old and no belt replacement I immediatly had the belt changed by Lexus Glasgow and when I inspected it, it was like new.and no doubt would be working quite normally today but after that experience back in 2005 I never would have contenplated the idea.

As for the cost of replacing the parts concerned it is cheaper these days than ever so why the debate, just do it.

[steve2006]

There have been a few cases on the IS200 where due to pulley bearing wear the belt had chewed itself up due to misalignment leaving around an inch of belt width, still didn't completely break though.