Is there a set mileage for timing chain replacement on the V6? Just picked-up an '04 with 180,000 miles. Looked through the owners manual PDF. didn't see it listed as scheduled PM. Thanks.

no reason to do that unless its stretched enough to trigger the CEL imo

Thanks.

Hell no! You can get a new short block for cheaper and put it in yourself. This job probably cost me $600 in parts and 12-14 hours. I spent ALOT of time mapping the project out and really only got help up on the crank pulley. The bump start method worked instantly for me.

I'm currently doing the timing chain on my son's 2005 Sport 2wd. It has 190K miles on it and had a pretty bad leak from the normal spot on the passenger side. Got it all torn apart and ready to clean up and reseal when I noticed the Tensioners on the small valve chains were either not functioning at all or had little to no tension. Main chain appears slightly stretched and decided that all this work would not be worth saving $250 in parts than to just go ahead and replace all the chain components now. No CEL on at this time. Difficulty was moderate to this point with appropriate tools, but also 4th gen appears to have more space to work with than my 5th gen.
Side note my 2010 also has 190k on it and has similar leak that is mainly seepage. However the Engine will need to be unboldted from engine mounts and lifted slightly to get access to the cover.... another degree of difficulty.

This may not be an indicator of failure. The upper tensioners have no ratchet mechanism, and operate only on oil pressure...there's no pressure when the engine isn't running. Only the #1 chain tensioner (lower) has a ratchet mechanism.

If the nylon pads aren't cracked or excessively worn I wouldn't convict the tensioners based only on the ability to depress the plungers as described above.

good to know, both tensioners nylon was cracked or non-existent, and one had chain clearly running over bare metal. either way all parts replaced and back together yesterday, running perfectly.

Finally did the water pump at 234,000 and pulled the cover to inspect the tensioner. All looks good so no more timing chain anxiety for me!

Attached Images

 

Hey, y'all! I'm gearing up to replace my 4th Gen. 4Runner's stretched timing chain (code P0016, and I've seen my extended tensioner through the four-bolt window), and I'm trying to decide which kit to buy. I see Cloyes recommended, that's cool. But what do you recommend should be included in the kit? I haven't torn down the engine yet, I don't know what it's like in there. I know I need the chains, obviously, but what else? Chain guides, gears, sensors? Do I need a VVT sprocket? VVT solenoid? Anything else I'm not thinking of? What's "normally" replaced when one does a timing chain replacement? Should I order a water pump ahead of time too, just in case? Advice requested, please. ^^; I currently just have codes P0016 and P0456, and I'm tinkering with the latter today in case it's unrelated (could it be related??). Thanks!

Hey Cougy. I'm no expert when it comes to this engine, but I have done a decent amount of work on mine. IMO the answer to a lot of your questions is "it depends". I think sometimes people go overboard replacing components that are functioning just fine, but I do get the argument of replacing things while you've got the engine open. I wouldn't bother with the chain guides, gears and sensors if they're all functioning fine, and you don't find any damage upon inspection. Whether or not you replace something may come down to what you find when you crack that bad boy open. If you've got high mileage on the water pump I would definitely replace it with an OEM pump while you're at it. It goes without saying, but you should replace all of the gaskets and seals involved with the timing cover, intake manifold, etc., since those should not be reused. You can piece these out, or you can get a 1GR-FE gasket kit that has everything you'll need, but that may be a bit overkill since it's somewhat pricey (~$300 at my dealership) and has a bunch of gaskets you don't need like the exhaust manifolds and the head gaskets.

Personally I would reset the timing of the engine with all the timing marks and the position of the camshafts in accordance with a Toyota service manual since you're seeing P0016. I'm not sure if your two codes are related, but this repair job should fix one of them.

Without the right tools, the crankshaft pully bolt is a huge pain, and you may have to fight with the alternator to get it off the timing cover, but overall the 1GR-FE is not a bad engine to work on. Glad to help if you have any questions. Good luck!

Thanks so much! I really appreciate your detailed advice. Gaskets are a good point, I definitely have to buy replacements for those. I hope I get all the ones I need! Must be a list somewhere. I’ll poke around.

Ah, P.S., the P0456 was nothing, went away next time I got gas and tightened the cap correctly. :P I’m buying parts for P0016 today to hopefully tackle it this weekend.

Is it normal to replace the VVT system during a timing chain replacement, or is that kind of separate? Like, would problems there throw a different code? Is VVT accessible enough that I could replace it later if it has problems, or should I preventatively replace it while I do the timing chain?

Success, she runs! My boyfriend and I finally got around to replacing our timing chain. We bought a kit from Mizumo Auto on eBay with guides, sprockets, tensioners, and the three chains. I have a rapport with a local autoparts store, so we decided to perform the repair there. Best decision ever! Every day we needed some new tool or part or even just AAA batteries to move forward with the job, so it was great being right there at the store. We were near fast food venues too, which came in handy. We commuted by bus every day after work and eventually enlisted a friend to drive us to and from the 4runner.

This job took two weeks. The labor added up to 76 hours, and there were two of us. xD There’s a reason mechanics charge so much for this repair. HOWEVER, the thing is, we DID pay a mechanic to fix this (three times, technically, two different mechanics), and it didn’t fix the problem! And all three times they kept our money! The problem is, this job is quite complex, and, as some of you have pointed out in this forum, 2007 4Runners apparently had a bad batch of chains, so paying people to do this job and even to swap the engine out for a different used 2007 engine (couldn’t afford refurbished) didn’t do any good. Long sad story. We promised ourselves that if the third attempt at trusting a mechanic with our life savings didn’t work, we’d try it ourselves! And even though it took us 76 hours, because we went carefully and did everything to spec, the repair worked! And we got to learn so much about our car along the way. It was kind of fun!

TIPS:

Everyone will go through this differently, I’m sure, but here’s what worked for us.
1. Read posts on this forum (particularly on this thread right here and on this other thread, particularly any post by Waypoint—thank you!), and watch this Youtube video. This one is helpful for setting the timing. This link is a handy read to. And, BUY THE SHOP MANUAL. It is an invaluable resource and has all the torque specs and pictures. It’s literally THE instruction manual for repairing your car.
2. No jack needed. I only used the handle for mine as a cheater bar.
3. Parts I bought on purpose: Mizumo Auto timing chain kit with guides, sprockets, and tensioners, water pump, GR-FE1 full gasket set (but only used oil pump o ring, crankshaft pulley seal, oil filter o ring, water pump o ring, RTF sealant for timing cover, valve cover gaskets, water pump triple gasket, timing chain piston inspection window gasket, head gasket, and ignition coil rubber boots), oil filter.
4. Ordinary tools we used: Ratchet and metric 6-sided socket set, extension bars, torque wrench, regular wrenches or inline wrenches, a few metric hex bits, pliers, needle nose pliers, rubber mallet, 2’ cheater bar (from my hydraulic jack), flathead screwdriver, razor, hand pump. Supplies: high mileage engine oil, coolant, a little automatic transmission fluid, Gunk heavy duty engine degreaser gel, Dawn soap, rinse water, scrub pads, old toothbrushes, wire brush, engine lube, nuts and bolts as needed, gasket glue, blue thread locker, painter’s tape, ziplock bags, permanent marker.
5. Special tools we bought: Immovable stripped bolts: PB Blaster penetrating oil, cold chisel and 3 lbs sledge hammer, Irwin stripped bolt remover sockets. Crankshaft pulley bolt: crankshaft bolt pulley holder, 22mm 6-sided socket, one cheap 1/2” driver breaker bar, one expensive extensible 1/2” breaker bar, one 4’ cheater bar (plain metal pipe of correct diameter, from Ace Hardware). Crankshaft pulley seal: seal puller (I can’t believe I’m buying this thing but I have to). Camshaft: premium 23mm straight-sided toothed wrench to hold the camshaft still for bolt removal for sprocket replacement, and for adjusting exhaust chains relative to main chain.
6. Crankshaft pulley bolt: We used the bolt holder and TWO breaker bars, one attached to the bolt holder and extended to the ground, and one attached to the pulley bolt with a 22mm 6-sided socket and operated using a 4’ cheater bar. Sprayed the bolt with PB Blaster a couple times, let it soak in, pushed down on the long cheater bar, and pop! It broke loose easily! We were pleasantly surprised. Of course, we literally spent $120 on tools and supplies to get that monster off. But it worked, and we were able to get it back on later!
7. The most irritating thing I bought was the seal puller for the crankshaft pulley seal. I feel like there must have been some way to get that thing off without ANOTHER special tool. But I didn’t want to damage anything around the seal, so I swallowed my pride and bought the stupid tool. Seal came off in 10 seconds.
8. Worst bolts (nuts, actually) were on the fan clutch for some reason. We had to hammer and chisel them off.
9. As we went along, we took pictures so we’d know how to put the car back together.
10. Whenever we took off a part, we taped the bolts in place on the part. This helped with reassembly so much! We also labeled which ignition coil was which in case that mattered. Any bolts we couldn’t immediately tape to the part (valve cover bolts, front timing cover bolts) were placed into labeled ziplock bags.
11. For some reason I tried to take off the drive belt tensioner pulley. DO NOT do this! And if you do, know that this special pulley bolt is a rightie loosie. I didn’t know this, broke it, and ended up breaking the darn bolt head off. I couldn’t find a replacement bolt and had to just replace the whole tensioner assembly. Dumb.
12. You do have to remove the whole tensioner assembly to get the front timing cover off (leave the pulley on!!!). Manual says “unbolt,” but we had to remove it before we could get the front timing cover to budge. Removing it also gave us access to a much-needed additional pry point.
13. We cleaned the front timing cover, the engine area behind the front timing cover (very carefully, and not too thoroughly), phasers (externally), and the valve covers. We did not touch the camshaft bays, even though they looked sludgy, because they looked too complicated and we didn’t want to cause more harm than good.
14. Top dead center: We took the spark plugs out to not have to fight compression. Then, with the crankshaft pulley bolt back in, we cranked the engine a million times, watching all the dots and marks and valves to get a feel for it. Then we put a garden flag in the #1 cylinder so we could just watch it go up and down. xD The silver cam lobes point at each other when the cylinder is up. There’s also a spring function that throws you forward or backward if you nudge off of that perfect spot. I don’t fully understand this, but that’s what we felt.
15. We figured out that our timing marks are all good, so we were able to rely on them. That made lining up the new chain okay. It was still tricky, and we studied the diagram and counted links to make sure we had the colored links in the right places. Then we placed the color links onto the dotted sprocket teeth. Tensioners weren’t on yet, and idler sprocket was off. This gave us wiggle room. Having two sets of hands was AWESOME and made this task much easier than it would have been for one person. It still took us two tries though, because the first time we did it we were one tooth off on the crank sprocket (the hardest to see), so on turning the engine a few times to test our work, we saw our timing was off again. So we compressed the tensioners and put their pins in and lined up the links again, takin special care to line up the colored link on the crank sprocket’s dotted tooth. On turning the engine over again, several times, everything stayed lined up! Note that the colored links will move, but the sprocket dots and phaser marks and all that will all line up, and that’s what matters.
16. We soaked the chains in a little cup of engine oil and put engine lube on all new tensioners, sprockets, and chains.
17. Remove all old sealant (razor helps) and wipe away all oil before resealing! Then, as Waypoint advises, practice with several dry runs (and make sure you’ve put in your o rings with gasket glue!) before you put the sealant on for real. My boyfriend was better at placing the cover, so he did the honors.
18. We had thread locker just in case but only used it on the #1 timing chain tensioner bolts, just because ours felt a little loose.
19. When torquing the front timing cover bolts, we zigzagged and tightened gradually. On reaching final torque, I marked the bolt with a permanent marker to keep track.
20. The rest was easy! It was just a matter of following the manual in reverse, putting on new gaskets here and there, tightening to torque specs, putting all the obnoxious hoses on all the way… All done!

This job is not for the faint of heart. But, with some time on evenings and weekends, careful attention to the manual, a helper if you have one, and a hefty budget for all the unexpected tools, bolts, and other supplies you’ll need, you can pull this off and get it done right! Turning that key, passing the emissions test, and sticking that legal registration sticker on to drive another day felt sooooooooo so good. And now we have the pleasure of bragging to all our friends and family about our mechanical prowess and can maybe teach them a thing or two. All in all, since we were able to get around via bicycle, public transit, and friends for the two weeks it took to finish the job, this was totally worth the time and effort!

PIC: New chains and sprockets on somewhat-cleaned engine, hooray!

Attached Images

 

I’ve found the right thread, thank you to those who have already contributed.

I have a question that I saw someone else ask, but haven’t seen an answer for yet.

The question: I haven’t seen anyone mention the phaser, or VVT intake sprocket. It’s not included in the timing kits I’ve looked at, whereas the exhaust sprocket, crank, and idler are. Should I just not worry about it?

My background has me keenly aware that chains and sprockets wear together, and from my experience at least, not replacing all at the same time can lead to bad things.

Thank you in advance. I’m also planning on replacing: thermostat, water pump, oil pump?, radiator, hoses, valve job…..

Am I missing something obvious? Thank you again.

280k, no codes