I'm a new member on the forum, Only had my IS200 for about two weeks, and I'm very happy with it in general. There's a few niggles to sort out, but as I consider the car was a bargin I don't mind spending some time and a little money on putting it right :)
One reason the car was cheaper than usuall was its lack of service history, but after a test drive and a good listen to the engine, etc, I decided to go ahead and take a chance
So, one of the first jobs on my list was to change the timing belt, It'd done 89,000miles so well on the way to the 100.000miles recomendation which most people seem to go by, but over the "or 6 years" which seems more realistic!
So as I'm pretty handy with my tools, and an engineer of sorts :D I decided to do the belt myself and change the water pump at the same time, the job was fairly simple and I must say that the quality of engineering on the car was fantastic.
Note, there was no unusual noise coming from the engine and no lack in performance.
This is what I found when I removed the top timing belt cover,
Wow :o
Yes the belt should be twice the width!
and with the bottom cover removed,
The remains of the other half of the belt are plain to see. The tensioner pulley had worn and gone out of line and was trying to throw off the belt, luckily the guard was close enough to stop it coming off in one go.
You can see in the next pic how the tensioner pulley on the left is out of alignmentcompered to the others,
The old belt and its remains!
The problem it seems wasn't the belt at all, Half the belt was still doing the work fine, but the tensioner must have been worn for ages, so even if your belt looks good, you could still be in for a supprise!
So if your belt has never been changed even if your car has low milage , do it! You may not be as lucky as me!