LS430 timing belt replacement; Easier than you think

[Smoother]

Hi, I'm new here, and as such I am restricted to posting in new members only.  So if a moderator would like to place it appropriately, that would be cool.

I recently decided to tackle my timing belt.  at 185,000mi (1st. one was around 90,000) it was time.  I know there's a lot of leeway regarding miles, but age, usage,  and environmental conditions can age rubber products differently, so I didn't want to push it, or i'd be pushing it, literally.

I'm no mechanic.  But I have a few tools, and I regularly study at the university of YouTube. 

Basically it was quite easy (and bear in mind, when I first watched others do it on YouTube, I said "no way am I up to that ".  Well it turns out I was.  You may be too.

Here's the stuff that caused me trouble, that isn't mentioned by others: 

1. Try and do it all on the same day, which means, have ALL your new parts there already.  That way it will be fresh in your mind.  Don't let a few days elapse between disassembly and assembly, like I did.

2.MAKE METICULOUS NOTES ABOUT WHICH BOLTS/STUDS GO WHERE AND WHAT THEY DO.

3. Take lots of pictures, and make sure they are clear detailed pictures.

4. Work with a lot of light, its quite dingy down there in a november garage.

5. Dress warmly (if appropriate)  cold will make you take shortcuts.

6.  Take your time when warming the car up, as well as checking for leaks and funny sounds, you need to make sure the water system is completely full.  Just filling it up isn't enough.  I can't explain what happened to mine, but I think I had air around the water pump, so it couldn't pump.  So make sure your radiator is getting hot.  Make sure the top hose it very hot and the bottom hose is cooler.  If the fans come on and the air they move is cold, you have air in the system, and air in the radiator, even if you did just fill it to the top.  Take your time and confirm the system is circulating hot water.

Let me 'splain. Item 2 above. For example, the first thing to go back on is the new water pump.  It's got a lot of bolt holes in it, but when I picked up the old pump for reference, it only had 2 bolts in it. Huh??!! how did that happen?  Looked all around for the missing bolts but none could be found.  Through a painful process of trial and error, and putting the tensioner system on then having to take it off again(complete with re setting the tensioner unit), I finally figured out what was going wrong.  As you are pulling the various bits off in sequence, you don't notice that a particular bolt you remove, is holding on more than one device.  Example, if I remember right, there's a small black plastic cover that comes of very early in the process.  At least one of these bolts also fastens the water pump; the last thing you take off.  That explains one vacant hole on the water pump, because the bolt was in the plastic shield. There were several other "dual purpose" bolts like this.

Seriously that was the hardest part. 

Other notable events:

Bumping the 22mm harmonic balancer bolt? prop up the cheater bar, YouTube style, and bump the starter. Easy Peasy.

Lining up the cams and belt, a little fiddly but very doable, check your work 6 times especially the little mark on the cam shaft pulley, its visible from underneath.  Try and get the Mitsuboshi (sic) or other belt with timing marks printed right on the belt.  Makes life so much easier. (curiously the old belt had these marks, but the dealer mechanic who changed it, didn't use them ) Yes, they were the right marks, I checked.  And yes, just like everyone else, the old belt looked pristine (but it makes no sense to put it back in, does it)

Retightening the 22mm crank bolt took some thinking (no impact gun and no assistance)  I took the old serpentine belt and locked it around the harmonic balancer by pinching it against itself.  Then i took the loose end and wrapped it around the power steering pulley anti clockwise.  then I put a cheater bar through the loop and wedged the end in a strong place above the alternator.  With my left hand I held tension against the other end of the cheater bar, and cranked as hard as I could on the crank bolt with a long 1/2" torque wrench.  Did i reach the specified torque? hard to say, cos my torque wrench doesn't quite go that high, but I was close, as I was passed the "click click", AND I used some thread lock.

When I flocked up and had to remove the new tensioner pulley, I had to remove the harmonic balancer AGAIN, having just almost popped a blood vessel tightening it.  I used the serpentine belt again.  This time I wrapped it around the A/C pulley and found a different place to anchor the cheater bar, and another vein to almost pop..  Why not just bump it again? I didn't want my timing marks to move, as I'd lose site of them; and when the tensioner came off I was in danger of the belt jumping a tooth ( it likes doing that when there's no tension on it, ask me how I know)  To sub for the tensioner while I was discovering ALL the bolts for the waterpump, I used zip ties to cinch the belt up against both cam pulleys.  This took all the slack out of the belt so I was ok on the cam pulley, but I did triple check ALL marks when it was all back together, AGAIN!.

So if you think you're up to doing your belt, let me tell you, its a lot easier than you think (I've never done a timing belt before on anything)

Total cost £227  (water pump, timing belt, idler pulley, tensioner pulley, tensioner, thermostat, serpentine belt, AND radiator)  Good to go to at least 280,000mi)

Oh, and for £28 more, I added a trans cooler in front of the condenser.  Whose idea was it to cool the tranny with hot water from the engine? The perfect time to do the rad and the cooler.

[The-Acre]

Well you've been a busy boy, and my lunch has got cold reading your epistle!  Well done for taking the plunge, it may encourage others to do the same.  And welcome to the LOC!

[Smoother]

4 hours ago, The-Acre said:

Well you've been a busy boy, and my lunch has got cold reading your epistle!  Well done for taking the plunge, it may encourage others to do the same.  And welcome to the LOC!

Sorry about your lunch.  I did go on a bit.