My 2002 V6 Camry was coming up on 90,000 miles, meaning it was time to change the timing belt. So i gathered the parts and tools - water pump and idlers too, and got to it. It took me about 5 hours for all of this. Here are some tips on how to change your V6 timing belt.
this was the first time i ever changed a timing belt on a V6. I had some trouble with doing it, and ihave described them so hopefully you can avoid the problems i had. But when the time came to do the timing belt on my Solara V6, since i had done it before this time, it was actually easy and only took me two hours. So try not to get frustrated and give up if you hit a few snags in your install, i did it, you can too.
(This post is for V6 Camrys but if you own a Solara, the V6 on it is a little different - but the differences are not significant. I did my 2001 Solara timing belt yesterday (February 7, 2008) so i have included a paragraph at the very end of this post about it.)
I suggest to read this post all the way through before you start.
IMPORTANT TIP #1: One thing to bear in mind from the get-go: there is alot of confusion sometimes about lining up the new belt marks with the dots on all the pulleys, as shown in STEP 9 below. Lining up the marks is really not hard to do BUT it means the difference between a smooth belt install or a frustrating debacle for you.
I dont want to intimidate anybody but remember the new timing belt must be on perfectly. By perfectly it means you cannot be one or two teeth off - or your car will run wrong, or not at all. Its not hard to get it right the first time, its just a matter of being careful, and there's a few simple things you can do to make sure you do it right.
An important thing is not to get confused about where the white stripes on the belt should be. So remember: Install the belt using the timing belt marks printed on it by the manufacturer. Line up all the dots and marks on the pulleys, along with the white strips on the new belt. Double check them. Install belt tensioner (photo 5).
And once you have done all this,
forget the belt markings, because they no longer are a reference to anything you will be doing from this point forward.
(
Because -
Once your new belt is on and the crank is turned one or more turns - only the marks on the pulleys must line up, with their corresponding timing marks on the engine!!!...so once the belt is installed, and the crankshaft turned, these marks on the belt are irrelevant - they wont be lining up with ANYthing now! And this is completely normal and how they are supposed to be. I'll explain more on this later.)
Now on to changing the parts. Photos are below their captions -
1. PARTS: Left to to right: Water pump $75, Idler and belt $62, #1 idler $78, power steering and alternator belts $18 (not shown).
Everything but #1 idler was bought on-line. The parts all arrived in less than a week.
#1 idler, as Toyota calls it, is a dealer only part. I looked all over the web and at all the local auto parts stores, but no one has it except the dealer. (#1 idler it is held onto the engine block by a
10mm female hex bolt. hex socket set is shown in the upper right corner.) When you must buy parts at the dealer, always ask for a discount, say you are with a shop and you might get it.
Parts
2. Use great care when handling the new timing belt - you do not want to get any kind of grease or oil on it. (Rubber gloves are nice to have when you come to the timing belt installation part because you do not have to waste time washing your hands.) If you get grease on your new belt, clean it with alcohol and a rag.
Jack up the car and place your jack stands. Remove RF wheel. Remove the 10 mm bolts and then pull out the plastic wheel well cover. (Do yourself a favor and clean the engine before you begin all this.) Now remove the alternator and power steering belts, and the upper mounting brackets/engine mounts.
Some people say you need to support the engine before removing the passenger side mounts, i found there was no need to support the engine since the remaining engine and trans mounts will not let it fall out.
The next step is to Remove the crankshaft pulley bolt (
22 mm socket).
(By the way - Haynes manual says to remove ALL the spark plugs at this point. The reason is to make the crank easier to turn. I'm lazy and did not do this, i only removed the 3 front spark plugs. In retrospect this job would have been easier if i had removed all 6 plugs - it would have made lining up the pulleys much easier not fighting the engine compression. But the rear ones are very hard to remove so i just skipped this step.)
REMOVE CRANK PULLEY BOLT: I pounded this bolt with my electric impact wrench but to no avail. Finally i used the breaker-bar-and-starter bump method, which worked like a charm.
To do this, you need the
22 mm socket, and a breaker bar. (shove a length of pipe over your socket handle if you have to. If it doesnt work after this i'd buy another brand next time.) Brace the breaker bar against a solid part of the car. Recconect battery and blip the starter with the key. (DON'T engage the starter as if you were trying to start the car. Just a blip or two, and now the bolt should be loose.)
Don't worry about getting the bolt back on tight right now - we'll get to that later.
Attempting to remove crankshaft pulley bolt with electric impact gun - failing. Below is shown the starter-bump method. To avoid performing accidental bodywork while getting the pulley bolt off, brace the breaker bar against something sturdy, only: The breaker bar is braced against the lower steering a-arm
3. REMOVE CRANK PULLEY: The Haynes manual claims "the pulley should come off with hand pressure". This is not so, it is probably stuck on there like nobody's business and you are probably going to need a puller of some kind. I used a steering wheel puller to yank the pulley off, as shown. (The puller was $10 from harbor freight.)
It's not a good idea to use a 2- or 3-jawed puller for removing the pulley, although i have successfully done it on other cars in the past. Just remember that it is easy to ruin the pulley using this kind of puller. And if you want my advice on how not to wrekc your expensive pulley,i say be very careful and work slowly. First lube the heck outa the pulley hole, what you can see of it, with any spray lubricant.
You may use a three- jawed puller to remove the crank pulley, if that is all you have. Remember you can mangle the pulley with this tool though. Use minimal force, turn the bolt a wee bit,then move the puller to spread out the force.
Tighten the puller bolt a little til you can feel it tug on the pulley. Back off the puller bolt, reposition the puller on the pulley, do it again. (Moving the puller around, spreads the pulling force out; so hopefully the puller jaws won't destroy the pulley.) Just a little bit at a time and ease the pulley off.
With the crank pulley off, you can now remove the upper and lower timing belt covers, they are held on by a whole bunch of
10 mm bolts.
-The timing belt cover on is two pieces. There is the main timing belt cover over the cam gears, held on by 6X 10 mm bolts. Then there is a small cover that is behind the crankshaft pulley. It is held on by 4 bolts.
Before you remove the covers, note how they fit together: (It doesn't hurt to make a diagram or take a picture if it will be helpful to you.) the lower edge of the upper cover fits into the lower cover - and both covers share a couple bolts.
At this point, carefully inspect the front crankshaft seal area for evidence of oil leakage. The seal is hidden behind the stamped gear but if it is leaking, you will see it. If any leakage is found, now is the time to change this seal.
Steering wheel puller used to remove pulley; the threaded holes in the crankshaft pulley were used
4. LINE UP PULLEY DOT MARKS TO ENGINE MARKS (3 MARKS IN ALL): (If your timing belt is broken and/or you cant turn the engine with it, be sure to read step 4a below).
Reinstall the crankshaft pulley bolt, finger tight only. Then put the wrench on (22 mm remember) and crank the engine by hand. (Don't worry about getting the crank pulley bolt out again - a quick yank counterclockwise ought to work.)
(As a general rule, turn the crank bolt
clockwise only! If you turn the engine counter clockwise it may cause the timing belt to skip time i.e. make it be off by one or two teeth, and that you definitely do NOT want to happen...however you can get away with moving it just a little counterclockwise for adjustments).
Line up the dot on the crankshaft GEAR (not the one on the crankshaft snout! that's for later...Align the dot on the stamped steel gear , see the tiny arrows in the picture).
This mark lines up with the mark on the oil pump.
IMPORTANT: Now your marks on the camshaft pulleys MUST line up too (refer to the picture at step 12 below).
If they don't line up you might be 180 degrees off on the crank and this is NOT what you want. And if they dont all line up it means you need to rotate the crank exactly ONE more complete turn (as measured by the crankshaft gear mark + engine mark, same as in the photo) - and make ALL the pulley dots line up now.
4a. Note to those with Shredded/broken timing belt: If your engine has snapped its timing belt and you do not have the old one installed to turn the engine with - here's what you can do to line up your marks. You will need 1) a toyota timing belt or other belt that has
all 3 marks on it. 2) a compression tester (Now is the time to be glad the v6 is non-interference because the pistons should not collide with the valves when they are turned seperately, because this is what we have to do now.)
To align the pulley and engine marks without a timing belt installed:
1. turn camshafts with the 17 mm wrench til the dots on the camshaft gear (pulley) line up with the notch on the engine.
2. Install compression tester in #1 spark plug hole (the first one in front, towards the passenger side.)
3. turn the crank pulley nut (22 mm remember) and watch the compression tester. When the needle showing p.s.i. goes up (the crank will get harder to turn.) and stays up - and your crank pulley dot is lined up, this means you are now at TDC and your marks should be lined up properly to install the belt.
VERY IMPORTANT: If you bought a timing belt from somebody other than Toyota, your new belt may have come with NO marks on it for aligning! I bought one non-toyota belt that was like this and decided to keep it (i also have a Solara V6) and just went down and bought a Toyota belt that has the marks. But if your belt has no alignment stripes and you can't just go and buy the toyota one now, you should get some white out or water based paint and mark your old belt right now that everything is aligned. This way you can use the old belt for a guide and mark the new one yourself by carefully counting the teeth in between and/or laying the new belt atop the old one.
Tiny arrows in photo show the mark on the stamped gear properly aligned with the mark on the engine
5. REMOVE OLD BELT: To remove the timing belt, first unbolt the tensioner. (It is held by two
12mm bolts, one long, one short).
Note to People Changing the Water Pump: To change the water pump on this engine, the camshaft pulleys must come off first. So before you remove the tensioner, remember that you can use the timing belt tension to loosen the camshaft pulley bolts.
Toyotanation member Canyoncarver has this tip for removing the cam pulley bolts:
Quote:
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On loosening and tightening the cam gears, instead of having the special tools, I rotated the cam in the appropriate direction to where I could get a 10mm socket onto the backing cover screw. While holding the socket on straight, I was able to loosen and tighten the gear with ease. I've done this on numerous other vehicles without ever having a problem.
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If this tip doesnt work for some reason, here's another way. The pulley bolts are on very tight and there is no way to get an impact wrench on them. Toyota says not to do this as it can ruin the belt - but if your old belt is more or less intact, using timing belt tension may be the only way you can get the camshaft pulley bolts off. We dont care that it might stretch the old belt because, it is the old belt that is getting replaced after all. You need TWO 17 mm wrenches to do this, just use the one pulley to hold the other one from turning as you loosen the bolt. Leave the bolts and pulleys on for now, just make them loose enough so you know you can get them off later.
Now unbolt and remove the tensioner. The tensioner pin is under a lot of forcen, so loosen the bolts evenly and in increments.
If your tensioner looks different than the one in the photo: note that on older V6's, the bolts may be
underneath the tensioner, and not the front as per the one in the photo.
TIP: If your tensioner has the bolts underneath, some people have said they just skipped the step where you put the hex key in the tensioner pin hole - and just tightened the bolts (in increments) when reinstalling the tensioner.
(By the way, this photo is out of sequence. It is NOT possible to have the hex key in while removing the tensioner)
Removing/installing tensioner - hex pulley has been stuck in thru the corresponding holes to hold the tensioner pin back for installation. Its under hella pressure so you will definitely need a vise
6. Remove the old belt now. If you are not changing your water pump you can skip ahead to step 8 or 9 (depending on if you are changing the idlers too or only the belt).
CHANGING WATER PUMP: At this point i chose to change the water pump, even though it worked fine. To do this, the camshaft pulleys have to come off. And then #3 timing belt cover. The pulley nuts are
17mm, and they are bolted on very tightly too
. (If you change timing belts for a living you might want to consider investing in the tools shown at the bottom of the post.)
Remove camshaft pulleys. Now you can remove the
10mm bolts holding the #3 timing belt cover and pull it out of the way. There is some wiring attached to the cover. I simply pivotted the cover out of the way without trying to remove the wires.
Now that the camshaft pulley gears and #3 TB cover are out of the way, inspect the front camshaft oil seals for evidence of leakage. If you see any leaking oil, now is the time to change these seals.
7. The water pump is held on by a bunch of
12 mm nuts and bolts. The Haynes manual says you must remove one of the protruding long studs, (as shown in the photo below) in order to remove the water pump. They're wrong again. Just pull out the water pump, wiggle the forward end loose off the stud and then the water pump will come out.
The factory gasket is also in the photo...it is a metal and rubber gasket and uses no sealer. I reused my old one. Sure hope it doesn't leak.
After you change your water pump, replace #3 belt cover and all the bolts. Replace the cam pulleys back on the camshafts. A hole and pin on the back of the pulleys align the cam and pulley, match them up so they mate properly and you cant go wrong here.
Water pump removed - note the OEM gasket, it is made of stamped steel and rubber
8.
CHANGE IDLER PULLEY ASSEMBLYS: upper (
14mm socket) and lower (
10 mm hex socket). Be sure to use loctite blue on the bolts here.
I changed my old idler pulleys even though they still worked - because I wanted to be done with all of this for another 90,000 miles. But if this is the first time the timing belt has been changed on this engine, and you are broke at the moment, you can probably get by with the old idler pulleys if you must. But you should at least check the old ones before you put everything back together. Spin the idlers by hand and listen carefully - they must spin freely with no binding and no grinding or unusual noise whatsoever. If they seem ok you could take a chance and re-use them if you have to.
But if it is your second timing belt change on this engine, i'd change them for sure.
9. INSTALL NEW BELT: Now put the new belt on, and then align the marks on the belt with the dots on the pulleys. Toyota says put the belt on in this order:
1 -First put it over the crankshaft gear and align the dot on the spline with the mark on the belt (photo below). I held the belt in place here with a zip tie around the belt -although you could use coat hanger wire too.
2 -Then place the belt under the water pump pulley.
3 - Then around the front-most camshaft pulley, and align the mark.
4 - Then place it under the top idler and then over the left camshaft pulley.
5 - Finally snake it over the lower idler pulley.
You will need a 17 mm socket to align the camshaft pulley marks and they will fight you all the way too, because of valve spring pressure. Here's some tips to make it easier -
Tip #2, i used vice grips, well padded with a rag, to gently hold the belt onto the front camshaft pulley.
Be SURE to not forget to remove the vice grips once you install the tensioner!
Tip#3, remember if the marks on the belt aren't clear, there are 59 teeth between the camshaft pulleys.
Below shows the timing belt matching mark (the little dot) on the crankshaft snout.
Tip #4, : this is NOT the same mark as the crankshaft alignment mark, for putting the engine at TDC! That one is on the stamped gear behind it, they are two seperate marks, as you surely will have noticed by now.
Tip #5, like i said, once you have the timing belt marks aligned on the crankshaft and the camshaft pulleys, these marks on the belt are no longer any kind of a reference - they are for belt installation
only. Don't forget that.
Factory dimple on crankshaft snout has been lined up with the mark on the new timing belt.
10.
INSTALL BELT TENSIONER: To reinstall the tensioner, which is the first thing you will do after you install the new belt, use the following procedure. You first must crush the pin in the tensioner back. You will need a vise to do this, it is under ALOT of pressure. (A C-clamp might conceivably work if that is all you have but i didn't try this, i just used a vise.)
If you find the pin moves easily, buy a new tensioner now, because it is worn out. Then shove in a hex key through a small hole in the pin.
When you have the marks lined up on the new belt, bolt the tensioner back in place and yank out the hex key to release the tensioner pin. I levered the hex key out with vice grips and a screwdriver handle placed under ditto for leverage.
Timing belt tensioner ready to be bolted back on. It is shown after the pin has been pushed down with a vise and a hex wrench through the holes inserted to hold the pin down
11. Now rotate the crankshaft twice (clockwise only). If you did everything right the marks (ON THE PULLEYS ONLY! ...will align).
(To get it right the first time and not have to fix this shit all over again, use the following procedure.)
A. Turn the crank over twice to check that the timing marks align, as Toyota says you must do. How? Read on.
B. All the marks on the PULLEYS MUST align. Check the three, the crankshaft pulley and the camshaft pulleys.
Double check to make sure the little dot marks on them align with the points Toyota made on the engine itself! You can just forget all about the little white stripes on the timing belt marks; at this point they will no longer align with anything,
unless the belt had to be removed and reinstalled again. )
12. Another photo out of sequence. The marks you used on your very first part of the belt install. (I highlighted the marks with white out. They are hard to see if you don't do this.)
More important, note the little white hash mark on the stamped notch on #3 stamped steel timing belt cover (upper red arrow). At this point the camshaft pulley dot (lower red arrow) MUST ALIGN PERFECTLY with the other hash mark (top arrow again).
If the pulley marks do not align perfectly, you should do it all again until they do.
(Forget all about the white stripe on the belt. I guarantee you it doesnt align with anything right now and what you are seeing is not the same as whats in the photo.) This is one of the critical steps to do the job right otherwise i wouldn't repeat things.
Not quite perfectly aligned but you get the idea. At initial installation, all three marks must align. IMPORTANT: Once you crank the engine over twice for the double check, the white stripe on the belt will NOT align - only the pulley mark and engine marks will align at that point!
13. TEST YOUR WORK: Now the marks are lining up, you should test your work before you put it back together. Reinstall your spark plugs now (i always use anti sieze on these threads, its a mistake not to).
Temporarily reinstall the big washer, crankshaft pulley and bolt. You need to do this because the washer is what keeps the belt from flying off the crank gear. (There is no need to tighten the crank pulley bolt to final torque now because it is coming off again right after you test your installation.)
Reconnect the battery and start the engine. Don't bother reinstalling the alternator belt right now, there's no need to! You can run the engine off the battery alone for 30 seconds or a minute without ill effect. And this is more than long enough to tell you what you want to know, which is: did i do everything right??
The engine ought to idle like it did before you started. Once you know it starts and runs right, you can shut it off and finish putting everything else back on.
If it runs poorly i.e. worse than it did when you started - realign the timing marks again and carefully check that the belt is really lined up right after all. You could be one or two teeth off, and this is enough to make the engine run wrong.
14. Important note on reassembly. Put the "RH engine mounting bracket" parts back on BEFORE you reinstall the timing belt covers. The mount is really two pieces called the same thing, per the drawing below. The edge of the timing belt covers go OVER the mount - there is a flange molded onto them for this. So if you put the covers on first you will just have to do it again, because the engine mount goes back on first. The parts in question are shown below, red
Put the "mounting bracket" parts back on before you try to install the upper and lower t-belt covers
14. Reinstall the power steering and A/C belts (and now is a good time to change them too). Reinstall everything else that had to come off including the inner fender cover etc.
Conclusion
I thought i had prepared for this job but i was wrong - i had done many timing belts before and never had a problem and i was sure i could do it this time too. But these were always on 4 cylinders with only one camshaft pulley. In short, i was well prepared in tools and parts but short on some basic knowledge...BTW If i would have locked the camshaft pulleys in place with these tools below, it can make it a little easier.
http://www.sjdiscounttools.com/vehic...elt-tools.html
2001 Solara V6 Notes: I did a 2001 Solara V6 timing belt recently. I dont know if the differences were due to just the different model year of the engines, or the fact that it was a Solara and not a Camry, but here are some minor differences in the procedure i found.
-The timing belt tensioner is mounted straight up through the bottom and not offset to the side like the Camry one in the post above. You would think you could skip the tensioner pin crush part when you go to reinstall it, and just install the bolts, but this is not the case - its mounting bolts are just too short.
- The spark plug coils use two electrical connectors and not just one like the Camry. To get them off, pry gently outward on the movable latch part and pull, they should pop off. A spritz of silicone spray here might be helpful to get them off. I used, (and always use) a little bit of electrical contact grease on the connectors, and a small glob inside the end of the coil pack (spark plug attaching contact) before putting them back on.
How to: Change V6 Timing Belt/Water Pump - Camry and Solara - Updated
I've never heard of it. You are obviously out of the loop even though you've worked at a shop for 16 years...
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