I wouldn't get overly worried just yet, if it's only 1 or 2 teeth off there shouldn't be any damage done, get it checked out and then go from there.

Thanks, I needed to hear that. I have been trying not to think the worst.
I spoke to the mechanic again last night and he still swears he has it in correct tome. I have been scouring the internet and studying manuals trying to figure it out. There are other reasons for those codes to come up. The lack of torque keeps pointing to the TB though. He wants to take another look at it and try to figure it out so he doesn’t have a very unhappy customer telling potential new customers that they should steer clear of his shop. I appreciate his diligence but I am hesitant to take it back to him.
Leaning more towards the local Toyota shop at this point.

Update. I took my truck to the local Toyota shop to have them put the engine in proper time. It runs perfect now. No codes and my hp is back. 3.5 hours plus another belt since he said the timing belt would have stretched and would need to be replaced even though it would have only 40 miles at best on it. I call bs on the stretching scenario but at least the new belt would be OEM. I shelled out another $500 for this job. A painful lesson learned for sure.
Interestingly, the Toyota mechanic stated that this engine is NOT an interference engine and that there was no need to worry about the belt breaking to begin with. ??? I told the “service advisor” who relayed that info to me that the mechanic is mistaken and that this is indeed an interference engine. He looked it up on his Toyota info and even called me later to inform me that the mechanic is correct, that my engine 2005 2uz-fe VVTi 4.7V8 is NOT an interference engine. Any thoughts on that tidbit? What a stressful nightmare this has been!

I looked at this and realized it was too much for me to bite off! I am having my mechanic tackle it.

If the previous belt was out of time with the teeth, it technically had to stretch to some degree. Better safe than sorry your mechanic made the right call there considering the belt will be installed for the next 8-10 years.

As for interference, there's lots of reading material on that topic.

04 4runner V8 Sport 2uz-fe timing belt failure, aftermath and the repair

Seems that 03-04 are non interference and 05+ are but I don't think anybody is 100% sure on that.

Best of luck to you and your mechanic. That is what I thought and it has still been a horrible experience. I wish I had just started at the Toyota service center to begin with even though they are generally more expensive.

Hi all, I recently purchased a 2005 T4R with just shy of 83k on it. I can't find any evidence of the timing belt having been previously changed and I am wondering if you all think it's ok to run a little longer to say 90k before changing it?


I would like to change it now but I am about to spend 1200 on an exhaust manifold replacement next week

I know toyota recommends replacement every 6 years or 90k whichever is first but I'm hoping it's ok to run a bit more so I can save up some $$$

Thank you @Jcmeadows82 for this great write-up. I have several questions about the process:

1) What is the purpose of draining motor oil and leaving the engine without it? Does it relate to replacing the crankshaft front seal?

2) Was it really necessary to replace the crankshaft front seal as the FSM does not mention about it nor it comes with the Aisin TKT-021 Engine Timing Belt Kit with Water Pump I bought from Amazon? Do you need a special tool to replace that seal?

3) How did you remove the crankshaft pulley? The FSM requires usage of a SST. Did it come out by hand?

4) How did you remove the old belt? The FSM states "Using a SST, loosen the tension between the camshaft timing pulley (RH bank) and crankshaft timing pulley by turning the camshaft timing pulley
(RH bank) counterclockwise slightly."

5) Did you use a crowfoot adapter for 3/8 torque wrench to torque 2 stud bolts on the water pump?

No problem! More info out there the better!

To answer your questions:

1) I drained the oil for 2 reasons. It needed an oil change and because I was replacing the Crank Seal at the same time. I have done more like this on many cars in the past and replace the $15 seal every time because why not if it cost $15 bucks!? If I didn’t have the VVTi motor I would have done the CAM seals too but that would have been digging too deep.

2) Necessary? No. I replace seals that are easy to get to when doing major work because if that thing was to start leaking within a year of doing the job I would be kicking myself for not taking the 20 extra min to replace it. I have done jobs like this in the past and not replaced it and 1 out of 3 times I regret it greatly. So, you could totally not replace the seal if you want to just wait for it to MAYBE start leaking. Might not though .
Also, no special tools needed. The seal can be pulled with a small flat head screwdriver or nice picks and installed by taping very gently around the edge of it until it sits flush. Watch a video on YouTube on the subject if you’re not sure. They are all basically the same.

3) The crankshaft pulley is installed with a B.A.B (Big A$$ bolt) that is torqued down to 4.37 jigawatts of torque (250ish pounds I believe) and so removal of the BOLT is made WAY easier with the tool I have listed in the writeup (it can be seen attached to the crankshaft in one of the pictures as well) so I recommend at least having that tool. Other than that, you need a breaker bar, and a socket wrench with a long tube over the handle or way to extend it to produce the leverage required to break the bolt free. As far as the pulley, it can be stuck to the crankshaft well, or it can slide nicely off. A pulley removal kit (not the Jaw style) is your friend here and you can usually rent or borrow one from your local hardware store. Watch the videos I posted, and you can get a better idea of what it takes to remove the pulley.

4) So, with the timing belt, when you have set the pulleys to the correct markings there is spring tension on the cams as you have basically just set one of the lobes pressing down on a set of valves. When you loosen the belt the cam shaft that is under tension will move about a tooth. Having the tool will allow you to unload that pressure slowly... not sure how big of a deal it is for the spring to push the cam suddenly when you remove the belt... maybe someone on here can chime in as I just yolo'ed it and let the tension off by pulling the belt?

4.5) Putting it back on was the tricky part as I needed to turn the cam and put the tension back into the system to get the notches to match up. This part of the job is a bit foggy and so maybe someone with a couple of these jobs under their belt could chime in.

5) Nope. I got them in the ballpark by setting a torque wrench to the specified torque, torqueing something, then replicating roughly the same pressure on the same length wrench. Not a huge deal, but a crowfoot would be nice.


Hope I have answers some of your questions. YouTube and forums like this are your best friend! good luck to you!

I just cannot tell you how much I appreciate this post. I am about to undertake this myself, and although I have quite a bit of experience doing this type of job in my own garage and needing my vehicle to be ready to go on Monday morning, this makes me feel a lot better. I'm going to document my experiences on this and post it for you guys.

I also recently just got done fixing an EVAP problem - the exhaust rusted out and disconnected between the muffler and the last reverb chamber. I got around to it as soon as I could, but by the time I did I had noticed that I could not put fuel into the vehicle and the gas pump would immediately shut off. I ended up figuring out that the breather tube between the gas tank and the charcoal canister had melted and collapsed in on itself, but that's a subject for another post.

Thanks again, really appreciate it.

Edited - sorry, link is not working. I'll repost once its fixed.

Not a valid URL for anything.

One thing i found helpful here - is there was no need to loosen the top rear AC compressor bolt, it has nothing to do with the fan pulley bracket. i just removed the front 2, and bottom (behind the oil filter) bolts - and the bracket came right off.

Also, for the crank bolt - i don't know if i got lucky - or just set myself up properly. But Using a crank holding tool (this one) 2 each of the 24" breaker bars from autozone loan-a-tool, and 1 22mm impact socket made the crank bolt surprisingly easy. I installed the holder tool with the 1/2" insert facing downwards towards the driver side frame, 1 breaker bar connected to that, resting against the frame, and the other breaker bar at high noon to pull on the bolt and it came right off with 1 person, no bs, no starter hack.

My new-to-me 2005 v8 is at 177kmi. The timing belt inspection sticker says it was changed at 101kmi.

At present the belt looks in perfect condition to me. I also had a pre-purchase inspection done on it.

Should I replace it at 190kmi, or wait till 200kmi?
And when I do get it replaced, I probably will just pay a shop to have it done. How much can I expect to pay for a timing belt replacement?

All engines are interference engines for the most part if you really want to get technical about it...

That being said, the 2UZ-FE is considered an interference engine because of the valve overlap/piston clearance IF the engine where to come out of time at a relatively moderate RPM. I have been surprised by many of the VVTi units I've seen snap a belt and survive (maybe a dented valve or two; but nothing warranting replacement/further tear-down beyond a new belt). But that's more being lucky than anything else in my experience.

Post Note-

Seems like it's time to retire my T-Belt DIY thread now.