serpentine belt/ rear brake light questions - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

sandrift · 03-25-2006, 12:29 AM

Hi,

I hope someone can help me with my questions... I'm not too familiar with cars, but want to know more as my car gets older and I have to take it in more often. Any help or info anyone could provide me would be much appreciated.

Here are my car's specs: 2002 toyota corolla, ODOM around 28,000. Mostly short distance travel btwn work & home(10-20 minute street drive). In addition, some infrequent moderate travel, between 1-2hrs driving to/from places (about once a week).

Q1: Would anyone happen to know the average cost of labor & parts to get a rear brake light replaced/fixed in Los Angeles? Just wondering what to expect.

Q2: I usually go to the dealer to get my car serviced. Last time I went in to have my oil changed, they also inspected my car, they said my serpentine belt was showing some cracks and that the labor costs to get it fixed/replaced would be around $300. Is this the usual price for this type of replacement? Also, is it normal for the tensioner belt to show signs of cracking at less than 30,000 mi? Most things I read say it's normal to get the belt replaced around 50-60K.

Again, any help or info anyone could provide me would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

E

94_Rolla_Guy · 03-25-2006, 02:25 AM

id look in the owners manual on the light bulb, will be dead easy to fix take 10 mins max!

as for the belt its more that its old than worn out, $300 sounds like alot for just the belt!

arens · 03-25-2006, 05:42 AM

The brake light should be an easy fix. A buck or two for the light from an auto parts store and a few minutes of labor.

$300 for the serpentine belt replacement sounds awful high. They have to be adding some other work in there somewhere since that should be just a 15 to 20 minute job at most; and that includes getting the car from the parking lot and taking it back. I find changing belts and hoses myself to be the best bet since the parts I buy are normally better than dealer parts.

If you have a socket set you should think about doing the belt yourself. Pop the hood and find the belt on the passenger side of the engine bay. You will see it wrapped around a bunch of pulleys. Not sure if Toyota does this or not as I haven't had to replace mine yet but there may be a diagram of the belt and pulleys on the inside of the engine bay. That will show you which pulley is the tensioner. If not it shouldn't be too hard to spot anyway. Just slap a socket on the pulley and pull it away from the belt with one hand and slide the belt off with the other. Then take the new belt and wrap it around all of the other pulleys and hold it in place next to the tensioner. Use the socket again and apply pressure to the tensioner until the belt will slide onto that pulley.

All done for around $40 with a quality Gates belt. There are cheaper belts but I won't use them. The only other I would even recommend would be a Goodyear. But I dislike Goodyear do to their crappy overpriced tires so they get none of my business.

Raddman · 03-25-2006, 06:44 AM

Quote:

they said my serpentine belt was showing some cracks and that the labor costs to get it fixed/replaced would be around $300. Is this the usual price for this type of replacement? Also, is it normal for the tensioner belt to show signs of cracking at less than 30,000 mi? Most things I read say it's normal to get the belt replaced around 50-60K.

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$300 is high when you can get a quality belt for $25...I have 54K on mine and just had the belt looked at and its fine...The bulb is so easy to replace most good shops would replace it for you free with minor maintenance work done and places like Sears auto, NTB or even Toyota would do it complementary with a oil change if you ask them... They also would probably throw a belt on at the same time for under a $100 inc. the belt.......good luck...Radd Guy...

Raddman · 03-25-2006, 06:49 AM

Quote:

But I dislike Goodyear do to their crappy overpriced tires so they get none of my business

Lol..You must have gotten the same OEM Integrity tires that I did that were 60K tires that had to be replaced at 26K.

..Radd out...

arens · 03-27-2006, 11:45 PM

Yeah, the Integrity tires really stink. They will be replaced soon enough though.

This is the 4th vehicle I have bought with stock Goodyears and they all stunk. 2000 Grand Am and Grand Prix, both had multiple tires that were coming apart by 20k miles. 2001 Durango had Goodyears with some of the fastest treadware on a truck tire I have ever seen.