Lexus RX 330

[kaisen]

Why you wouldn't replace the water pump, cam seals, tensioner, and idler rollers are beyond me. If one of them failed, the timing belt could break and valves meet pistons. What cheapskate replaces just the timing belt?

[Scott R]

Originally Posted by kaisen

Why you wouldn't replace the water pump, cam seals, tensioner, and idler rollers are beyond me. If one of them failed, the timing belt could break and valves meet pistons. What cheapskate replaces just the timing belt?

I was surprised as well. I suppose it's service interval. The kit from Toyota had the belt an idle roller and a tensioner roller in the kit. There were some third party kits that had the pump in them. And then other third party kits that had all the seals and the tensioner as well.

When I purchased the belt kit from the dealer they didn't even ask me if I wanted a pump, I had to ask them. They acted like it was never an issue.

I don't work on enough toyotas to have an actual educated answer. I can say this, the timing belt was one hell of a quality part for a timing belt.

[kaisen]

Toyota's book time is 3.5 hours for the belt, plus 0.7 hours for the water pump, plus 0.5 hours for each seal, tensioner, or pulley. So theoretically, you could ask for just a timing belt change and get out of there for $400 if the dealer is in a rural area (i.e. < $100/hr).

Remember that while the RX 330 is the same basic motor as the RX300, or Sienna, Camry, ES300, ES330, et al, that they do not have the same labor operation times as they have different challenges.