Cam belt one tooth off, runs fine though....

[Nortonguy]

I am changing the cam belt on my 2000 camry. I do not have a 2000 service manual, but I have a 1999 service manual in pdf and every detail looks the same so far.
I took off the timing cover and put the balancer on the zero mark when I do this it looks like the timing mark on the cam pulley is one tooth off.

In the past someone, either the factory or the last person who changed the belt, put some white marks on the cam pulley and the inside of the timing cover etc. as some sort of aid.

I drove this car a bit and it seemed to run great, it idled, had good power and had no ping or pre-ignition that I could hear. I am just wondering if I should put the new belt on by the factory marks, or put it on the way the old belt is on currently....Maybe I am missing something having a service manual one year off too....

Here are photos of the actual car I am looking at, the crank pulley is on zero per the manual, and you can see the mark behind the pulley on the engine that the hole is supposed to be lining up with. The white mark on the pulley and inner timing cover are off a bit, one tooth, just like the factory mark and hole. Notice also someone has painted one of the pulley spokes with a big white mark. Car has 117K on it, maybe someone already changed the belt and I am doing this for nothing? Shhhhh, dont' tell my wife, it is her car and she has already paid for the new parts.....

Anyone have two cents they want to throw in?

[SpeedyTurtle]

Don't go by that mark. Use a mirror and check that the hole in the camshaft pulley lines up with the notch in the housing. like :
Taken from gen3 DIY by the way....

[bolink654]

I did mine and ended up 2 teeth off. Drove it for a tank or two like that, it had slightly less power, but also got 2-3mpg less than it had before.

I'd imagine one tooth off would be very hard to notice in the power department. But yeah put it on by the factory marks. Will surely save you gas, especially over 70-80k that its good for.

[hill8570]

Originally Posted by SpeedyTurtle

Don't go by that mark. Use a mirror and check that the hole in the camshaft pulley lines up with the notch in the housing. like :
Taken from gen3 DIY by the way....

If you look closely, the notch on the housing looks to be about the same amount off as the two match marks up above...otherwise you wouldn't be able to see the notch in the picture.

Sure looks like the timing belt's already been replaced, and it's a tooth off. Tensioner idler and spring look old enough to be original.

Were it me, I'd loosen up the tensioner so I could get enough slack to rotate the cam gear a tooth clockwise, retension, and see how she runs. You can do that without buttoning up...just make sure the alternator contacts aren't shorting against the engine before you start it.

[Nortonguy]

Well I bought this nice kit of parts on ebay that has all OEM components. The belts, a Aisin water pump, and all new seals, idlers, thermostat and bearings to re-do everything on the timing side of the engine, it was $180 including shipping. Since the car is an unknown quantity and it is apart at the moment, all this stuff is going in whether it needs it or not along with fresh coolant etc..

I know that advancing or retarding the camshaft is an old trick for racing tuners to move the torque of an engine up or down a bit, but with a computer-controlled engine that may not know enough to change other parameters to compliment the change , more harm than good could certainly be done.

So thank you very much once again for the great input, this forum is fabulous. I will put the engine back together like it says to in the service manual, not the way it is now......

[Nortonguy]

I do have the entire service manual for the 1999 in pdf form, I downloaded it using this torrent here:

http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/3954..._Repair_Manual

If you do a search for "toyota manual" on the website there are other manuals there too.

[carsrus]

if your one tooth off and the belt is properly tensioned the cam mark wont be in the alignment hole. Its pretty easy to set and it wont run at 2-3 teeth off. Its pretty rough at one off as well.