The legendary Toyota Land Cruiser, the unstoppable XV20 Toyota Camry, generations of Honda Accords, the smooth and trusty Lexus LS — these are often mistakenly considered some of the most reliable cars of all time. I say “mistakenly,” because all of these vehicles are expected to grenade themselves after ~100,000 miles unless you tear their engine apart and spend four figures on a major repair job. That major repair job is replacing a timing belt, a part whose presence — in my opinion — disqualifies any vehicle from being considered truly “reliable.” Here’s why.
I realize this is a smoking hot take that might send Land Cruiser and Honda fans fuming, but it’s actually quite straightforward; it’s time for those of us hypnotized by factory maintenance guidelines to snap out of it. A timing belt does not fall under “regular maintenance” any more than a head gasket swap does (on a pushrod motor). It’s a major job, it’s not cheap, and it should be considered a substantial repair. Because the manufacturer decided to include an unnecessary consumable in the bowels of the engine, a 100 Series Land Cruiser or Camry or Accord has to go into the shop for a $1,300 repair after only seven years on the road; nothing about that is “reliable” (unless we take the word literally — in which case you can reliably expect to lose lots of money every 100,000 or so miles).
Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s take a step back and talk about what prompted an even spicier edition of David’s Takes (my op-ed that runs every Sunday) than last week’s “It’s Time To Stop Hating On Fancy Pickup Trucks.” A few years ago, I was the proud owner of a 2001 Lexus LX470 — the Lexus version of the 100 Series Toyota Land Cruiser. The vehicle is, almost universally, considered to be one of the most reliable SUVs of all time. You’ll see it on safaris in Africa, on 15,000-mile overlanding trips through South America, and bouncing all over the Pacific Northwest and on Rocky Mountain trails; the 100 Series Land Cruiser is rough-and-tumble, and the vast majority of its reputation has been built on its longevity.
The Unstoppable Land Cruiser Is Stoppable. Every 90,000 Miles
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My 2001 (shown above) had 265,000 miles on it and ran beautifully. It towed my Jeep Forward Control across the country while keeping the Lexus’ cabin almost perfectly silent; the LX was really a no-bullshit SUV for me, and I enjoyed driving it.
But as I wrote more and more stories about my adventures in that vehicle and read comments from Toyota fans stating how unstoppable that 4.7-liter V8 is, I decided to do a bit more research into the smoothest V8 engine I’d ever heard, and that’s when I spotted this in the Scheduled Maintenance Guide:
This changed my whole perception of the motor.
This engine, known to be one of the most reliable of all time, has to have its timing belt changed every 90,000 miles. Since the average American drives around 13,000 miles per year, that means the belt has to be swapped every seven years. That’d be like buying a 2017 car today with 90,000 on it, and then the engine blowing up. Would anyone call that a reliable engine? No.
But that’s what could happen if you forewent that timing belt job.
For those of you who don’t know, a timing belt is what connects the rotation of the crankshaft — which dictates the position of the pistons in their cylinders — to the camshafts, which dictate the positions of the intake/exhaust valves for each cylinder. It’s extremely important that the timing of the valves relative to each piston’s position in its stroke is precisely managed.
With a cylinder’s exhaust valves shut, the intake valves have to open as the piston goes down to suck in air; intake valves have to close as the piston moves back up to compress that air charge; both sets of valves have to remain shut as the piston is shot down during its combustion stroke; and then the exhaust valves have to open as the piston rises to expel its exhaust, ultimately out of the tailpipe.
If the valve timing — which is set by the timing belt spanning the sprockets at the ends of the crankshaft and camshafts — is altered, and, say, the intake valves are open when the piston rises up during its exhaust or compression stroke, the piston can hit the valves and destroy them. This could require a major engine repair. This happened to my colleague Jason.
It’s Too Risky To Skip 90,000 Mile ‘Service.’ But It’s Not An Easy Job
Jason owns a VW Tiguan 2.0T; when the car was 10 years old with 120,000 miles on the clock, its engine blew up (the pistons hit the valves and bent them) because the timing chain failed (see video above). Google “VW Tiguan timing chain failures” and you’ll see that this is a rampant problem that has, in many people’s eyes, ruined the first-gen Tiguan’s reputation. Meanwhile, the Toyota Land Cruiser and my old 1995 Honda Accord and various Toyota Camrys behave in exactly the same way; after 10 years or 120,000 miles, their timing systems can fail (their belts snap), and the interference engines can grenade themselves. And yet, these vehicles have a great reputation while the Tiguan doesn’t. Why? Simply because Toyota/Honda writes in their manual that the timing belt is a maintenance item? So all VW had to do it write in its service manual: “Replace timing chain at 90,000” miles and the Tiguan’s rep would have been saved?
Does this mean that all GM had to put in the Saturn Vue’s service manual was “replace JATCO continuously variable transmission at 120,000 miles” and the car would have a sterling reputation? All Subaru had to write in its service manuals is “replace head gaskets at 90,000 miles” and it’d change the way people see Subarus?
On some level, the answer is “yes,” because knowing when things are about to fail is pretty darn valuable. These cars with timing belts tell you: “Your engine is about to fail. Take it in to have the engine serviced,” and that’s useful. Having a transmission or head gasket or timing chain fail suddenly and unpredictably makes driving a car miserable. I’m also being a little facetious, because swapping a transmission, timing chain, and even a head gasket is typically harder than changing a timing belt, but still! It’s not like changing a timing belt is easy; it’s a job! (One that I’ve done too many times).
On the Land Cruiser — which is among the easier vehicles on which to swap out a timing chain, as it has a longitudinal engine layout — you’ve got to drain the cooling system, remove the radiator, take apart the accessory drive, undo the crankshaft pulley (which usually requires a HUGE breaker bar), and on and on. Some novice wrenchers say the job takes them 10 hours, though some who have done it before seem to be able to do it in half that time. Either way, it’s rough.
‘You’ve Got To Be Kidding Me’
Check out the video above and listen to this quote by YouTuber “The Car Wizard.” In the background is a relatively new Honda that needs a timing belt. The Car Wizard discusses a typical interaction with an owner who has to have this “service” done:
“So [customers] call up and say ‘How much is it gonna cost to do my timing belt service?’ And I look it up and figure it all up and I say ‘It’s gonna be $1300.’ And I hear the phone hit the ground. And they pick it back up and they’re like: ‘You’ve got to be kidding me!'”
That owner’s response makes perfect sense. Here’s this car known for its reliability, and it has to have a $1,300 engine service done every seven years. Meanwhile, many cars with timing chains have to do nothing. Zero. Nada. Timing chains and their guides/tensioners — if properly designed (Jason’s Tiguan proved that not all of them are) — are meant to last the entire life of the vehicle. In the case of a pushrod engine, they pretty much never fail, and engines with timing gears? Even better.
Well-Designed Timing Chains Never Have To Be Replaced
So coming back to my Land Cruiser — it has a great, buttery-smooth and torquey engine, and I love how it makes oil changes and other basic maintenance easy. But the reality is that, by the time I got rid of the vehicle, its engine was due for its third timing belt replacement. That’s three times $1,300 — almost $4,000 to do something that, in my view, you should never have to do in the first place.
Why would I ever consider an engine reliable when it needed $4,000 in repairs done to it to get to 270,000 miles? My Grand Cherokee above, which had similar mileage, almost certainly never needed a new timing chain. Granted, it wasn’t an overhead cam design (meaning the cam and crankshaft are quite close, so the chain is tiny), but the point is, if an engine requires a new timing belt every seven years, then I’m just never going to consider it reliable. I could have bought an entirely new engine for my Jeep and still come out ahead over the Land Cruiser 4.7-liter V8’s timing belt jobs.
In my view, a reliable engine is one that’ll do 250,000 miles with basic maintenance. A good example is the Mazda MZR 2.5, also called the Ford Duratec 2.5; it’s a four-cylinder with a timing chain, and because it’s so well designed, the engine requires only basic maintenance. Basic. That means oil changes, maybe some new things on the accessory drive like the alternator or water pump, some filters here and there, new plugs, maybe a few ignition coils, and that’s about it. These are all relatively cheap and easy things to swap. A timing belt is not.
Compare a Honda F22B, which requires a pricy timing belt swap every 7 years to a Mazda MZR 2.5, which requires oil and filter changes, and you’ll understand why I consider the latter the truly reliable motor.
To Be Sure…
To be sure, timing belts can last longer than 90,000 miles (though some are expected to be changed at 60,000 miles). Heck, some have had them last 150,000 miles or more. But the reality is that the risk of blowing up the engine is too high, and this leads most folks to follow roughly the recommended service schedule. It’s also worth noting that Toyota Land Cruisers are known to survive timing belt failures, so even if you were to try to stretch that change out to 150,000 miles, there’s a chance that if the belt snaps, the engine will be fine. (Still, in general, timing belt failures in interference engines can often lead to bent valves or damaged pistons; it’s not worth risking it).
It’s also worth mentioning that, while The Car Wizard’s $1,300 quote does line up with typical timing belt jobs you see posted to the web (especially recently, as labor rates have skyrocketed in the past few years), historically it’s been possible to do a timing belt at an independent shop for $600 to $700.
It’s also worth mentioning that some timing belts are easier to change than others. But I’ve done the job a few times, and it’s never been remotely fun. It’s easier to swap a head gasket on my Jeep 4.0.
Anyway, there’s a reason why timing belts are pretty much gone from modern engines. Expecting such an intensive and expensive service every seven or so years is just ridiculous. The weight/noise/cost reduction just isn’t worth it. As you can see in this table, Toyota has moved on from the clearly inferior technology:
Image credits: Toyota, Genems Systems via YouTube screenshot
I don’t really disagree. I say that as the owner of a 340k mile 100 series, and I’m not far from the 3rd belt replacement under my ownership. A chain, in theory, should be the more robust option.
Now having said that, I also own a W126 560SEL, and that car has a chain. But mine needed replacement at 126k due to slight stretch, and the chain guides were very close to “let’s turn this block in to a table instead” territory. Similar story with my 330k mile W123 300D- chain stretch and was replaced in the last 20k or so. Outlier high mileage scenario, but to say, even on some of the best engineered engines ever, timing chains aren’t always entirely maintenence free in the long run.
This article just shows in what crazy world we are living in. What people consider as reliable makes no sense. Ferrari can be considered as exceptionally reliable cars. They are just going to bankrupt you in maintenance costs. This flawed logic which you hold has no merit. People never thought about their concept of reliability and thus it doesn’t hold to scrutiny.
Timing belts are ridiculous. A reliable car is one which can be maintained with minimal costs over long period of time. Most German cars are just ticking time bombs. You are going to need belt replacement regularly. That is a very expensive job of disassembling the engine in order to replace piece of rubber. Over a thousand euros spent over something trivial which timing chain completely eliminates is insane.
Are you aware what is normal maintenance cost for a reliable car? 500 euros annually (or twice per year if not used a lot). Having to constantly do maintenance jobs which are worth half of old car’s cost is really bad. You are just throwing money away while big corporations are just raking in cash. They save few bucks by going cheap timing belt while you spend thousands replacing those belts. A reliable car would not have plastic inside engine block which routinely cracks every 5 years. It would have metal parts which would last for a lifetime.
German cars are no longer good. Volkswagen are known to be a money pit to maintain. People make a bad purchase and they get accustomed to what they are used to. Hence, brand image and popularity of sub-par cars from manufacturers which never get their act together.
I’ve been thinking about this article for a few days, and I think I figured out why David is so against timing belts, and it’s not for reasons outlined in the article nor the comments (unless I missed it, there’s 494 of them right now).
However, it is a VERY David reason:
Timing belts don’t rust.
“I don’t trust what doesn’t rust!”
– David Tracy (probably)
I’ll agree with the author on one point — requiring a timing chain to be replaced before 150K miles is not routine maintenance. I’m 70 years old now and I’ve owned or operated over 50 different vehicles. They’ve been manufactured by Americans, Germans, Swedes, Japanese and Koreans — from my first car (1963 Dodge Dart with a 225 Slant Six engine) to my current cars, a 2006 Volvo XC-90 2.5L Turbo and a 2017 Honda Ridgeline RTS. Except for the Rigdeline, all have logged over 125,000 (the ’63 Dart logged over 325,000 miles).
Of all those cars, only the Volvo had a timing chain failure — at 177,000 miles. Meanwhile I’ve just been informed the Ridgeline will need to have its timing chain replaced — at 80K (severe service) or 95K (normal service). The 80K Sever Service factory recommendation includes replacing transmission service, trans fluid replacement, coolant service and replacement, power steering and brake fluid replacement, and a host of other minor services. That doesn’t include the “secret” warranty service on the engine’s fuel injectors (discovered when the engine started throwing codes at 78K). The Ridgeline currently has only 81,000 miles.
No wonder the dealership is so eager to sell or lease me a new car! Much as I love the Ridgeline, I’ll have to think long and hard about getting the service interval done vs trading it in for a new purchase or lease.
Very random, but from this article and long comment section, I thought “has there ever been an engine with pushrods AND a timing belt from the factory?”
Surely not, right? I’ve never heard of it.
Turns out, there is at least one! Duetz diesels has at least one model that is pushrod and has a belt! Super weird…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=qqyKdPpLayE
As a shop owner, recent timing chain engines make my opinion always in the wrong when giving customers advice. They often ask, “when should I change my timing belt?” I will reply, “ma’am you have a timing chain engine there is no service interval it is a lifetime part”. Next month vehicle gets towed in…”Ma’am your poorly engineered timing chain system that was built with inferior cost cutting parts has failed and you will need a new engine”. Guess that’s the “lifetime” of that vehicle lol
Totally agree; timing belts are a scam. They were absolutely designed so oblivious owners would grenade the motors and have to buy a new car.
Certainly not all Toyotas and even other overhead cam engines with timing belts are interference engines. My sister had a car w/ an OHC and the timing belt failed. The car was towed to a shop and the belt replaced, nothing damaged. OTOH, my Hondas have all been interference engines. You can bet that I changed those puppies on time.
Sadly, the Germans have not been great at implementing timing chains. Too often, metal and plastic guides fail, leaving the timing chains to wander about w/ little guidance. Failure ensues.
Conversely, I had a 318 Dodge that had a timing chain that wore so much that the chain dropped off the crank sprocket when my wife shut it off. Kinda ruined her afternoon of shopping before we were to live on vacation. There is an easy way to check that wear. Remove the distributor cap (remember distributors?) and put a wrench on the crank bolt. More than 10-15° of crank rotation before the rotor moves is a good indicator of repair needed.
I had the timing belt replaced on a Honda V6, it wasn’t a long repair and in 2018, less than $1000. But the part of me that hates hydraulic hood struts and prefers low tech hood support prop rods feels similar about belts vs. chains in timing. Gimme the robust one that’s not definitely going to fail at some point.
In the words of Adam Savage, “I reject your reality and substitute my own”.
I still hold on to that “reliability” is a loose term to use. Any vehicle can be reliable or not depending on regular maintenance allowed or performed buy the owner of the vehicle. Engineering aside, vehicles can break no matter what.
That being said, as a mechanic, do I recommend belted cars to all my customers? Almost never unless it is a vehicle they really want and actually do care about timing belt maintenance. Now other customers do purchase vehicles and have no idea about belt service, which I make sure that they are aware of. Some of them listen and adhere to the maintenance, others do not, forget about it, or end up selling their vehicle.
The way vehicles have been engineered over the last several years really makes me question the reliability of timing chains. Albeit that timing chains are no longer just spinning camshafts yet are under changing loads of cam phasers and one cam operating a high pressure fuel pump for direct injection. Plus extended oil change intervals don’t help.
Personally I do own a couple of 4G63 Eclipses and do I trust those timing belts? Not in your life!! I also do not trust any modern German car with timing chains either.
Counterpoint: I wanna call bullshit on this one. I love cheap no-maintenance drive-it-till-it-implodes shitboxes as much as anyone, but not every car has to be one, and not every affordable car has to be disposable. $1200 at a shop or 4 hours in the garage on a weekend is a reasonable price to pay for 100k of reliable service.
Sure, but I’d rather pay $0, which I can if I don’t have a timing belt.
Chains, for the most part do last longer, and I’m cheap as well. I still had to replace the stretched timing chain in a 2003 mini at 147000 miles. Its also why my everyday transportation. a 2006 Silverado 4.8. Simple chain system, one little gear driving one big gear with a chain.