Maintenance questions

[importcar]

My 01 5SFE just hit 180k mi and it will soon be needing a new timing belt, water pump and valve cover gasket. Do I need to stick with genuine Toyota parts or will Autozone suffice?

I was wondering, does anyone use RTV on their oil drain plugs instead of crush gaskets?

[gr91]

OEM for Timing and water pump is A MUST!, and autozone is ok for the valve cover gasket just make sure they come with everything!

[fenixus]

be careful with autozone parts around engine. their water pumps (Duralast and Bosch) do not tend to live long. gaskets are another story, some of them are not bad, some others are worse, same goes for aftermarket idlers, tensioners and such.

I would get a camry timing OEM kit from ebay (aircabinman seller) or get an Aisin timing kit from rockauto (Aisin in the manufacturer of water and oil pumps on Toyotas).

Gates makes decent timing belts too if you want aftermarket, but I think you have better chances with OEM.

[importcar]

Do I need special tools? I have the typical beam torque wrench, ratchet and box wrench, and sockets.

[JohnGD]

You will need a pulley holding tool and cam sprocket holding tool:
home made tool to tighten camshaft sproket nut

As far as parts go, eBay AirCabinMan's kit for about $185 shipped, Toyota OEM parts (check with ToyotaPartsMan here on TN or other online dealers), or aftermarkets like Gates/FelPro. Aisin is the OEM brand of water pump. The Stant thermostat has a jiggle valve like OEM's Kuzeh, just don't use the value line thermostats without a jiggle valve.

If you need new plugs get NGK Iridium-IX. Torque them with a Harbor Freight torque wrench, on sale for $15 now (1/4", 3/8" and 1/2"-drive). Do you have 1/2"-drive sockets for the crank pulley and lug nuts? HF has them I think $1 each on sale. Pick up a 18" or 25" 1/2"-drive breaker bar.

GATES K030295 Micro-V AT Power Steering Belt $5.14
GATES K050435 Micro-V AT Alt/AC Belt $14.10
FEL-PRO TCS45920 Crankshaft Front Seal Set $5.10
FEL-PRO TCS45641 Camshaft Front Seal $3.66
NATIONAL 221820 Polyacrylate Oil Pump Shaft Seal $2.86
GATES TCK199 (1 Belt, 1 Tensioner, 1 Idler) Timing Belt Component Kit
$52.89
STANT 48278 180° w/Jiggle Pin OE Type Thermostat $10.94
AISIN WPT010A Water pump w/o housing $30.79
FEL-PRO VS50304R1 Valve Cover Gasket Set w/Spark plug tube seals
$18.26
Subtotal $143.74
Shipping about $20

[importcar]

Thanks for all the info. I'm not the best DIYer but that crank holding tool seems easy enough to make. Too bad it can't double as a harmonic balancer puller. My plugs were replaced earlier this year, so they still have lots of life left. I don't have a breaker bar but I have a $60 electric impact wrench, rated at 150 ft/lbs torque. I hope it is strong enough for the crank pulley bolt. I bought that wrench 2 years ago to work on the shocks.

[Luc]

Don't even bother with the electric impact wrench, I had tried an air wrench rated up to 250 ft-lbs with an 8-HP compressor and the crankshaft bolt wouldn't budge. I went to a local shop and the guy there told me to use a breaker bar and pry it up against something, try to start the car, but don't turn it over, and the bolt will be loosened. I was scared to try it, but it worked great! But what I did was to use some copper pipe moisture foam that was lying around and slid it over the 25-ft 1/2" breaker bar, put the 22-mm socket on the bolt, and zip tied the end to secure it. When you hear a "clunk" sound, the bolt is loosened.





Make sure you use a puller like below to take the crankshaft pulley off.

[importcar]

Thanks for the pics. Yeah, my impact wrench is weak. I got it for $60 at autozone, eventhough it is rated 150 ft lbs, it couldn't budge the suspension bolts nor the lug nuts!

[Luc]

When I worked on my and my friend's Gen4/Gen4.5 and Solara Gen1 suspension, the electric impact wrench I had worked fine with the strut-to-axle carrier bolts since they were pretty tight. But if you are referring to strut mount bolts, I wouldn't recommend using the electric impact wrench since they'll likely do more harm to the nut, likewise for the lug nuts.

If you have a Harbor Freight near you, I would recommend getting these tools as they were suggested to me.
22mm Socket
Breaker Bar
Pry Bar Set : used for pushing the power steering pump in order to tighten the belt and lifting out the shield when putting the new water pump in
Bolt Puller Set : used to pulley the crankshaft pulley off

In addition to the several 10-mm bolts holding the water pump in, there are two studs that require a torx socket to remove ONLY IF the torx threads aren't stripped. If they are stripped, then you'll need to get a stud extractor, otherwise, that water pump isn't coming out.

[importcar]

What's the 22mm socket for? I thought the crank pulley bolt is 19mm or 3/4"?

[JohnGD]

Luc's got V6s.

[Luc]

As JohnGD indicated, I have the V6, so it's a 22mm bolt. Sorry I didn't realize the 5SFE was a 19mm.

[pmesfun]

40? Wow that is low, I just tightened it with an impact.

[importcar]

I went to Harbor Freight and picked up 2 torque wrenches, harmonic balancer puller, 19mm impact socket, and a pack of oil filter wrenches. it was my first time at harbor freight and I must say they their tools are decent, maybe just a tad lower in quality and finish to Craftsman, Husky, and Stanley. But for the price, they're better than Great Neck at Autozone.

I just realized I'm not due for a coolant change for another 10k mi. I might put off changing the timing belt and water pump, since changing the water pump requires draining the coolant system.

Should I put it off or do it now?

[JohnGD]

Autozone's spec says 159 lb/ft for the 1MZ.

Originally Posted by fenixus

1mz-fe has 22mm crank bolt and it calls for 40ft-lbs