richamc01
New member
Hello all,
I need some advice from you folks here on the forum. My 99 T4R recently just broke down on my girlfriend while I was out of town. When I got back I was able to do a bit of digging into why this may have happened.
She told me that she noticed a huge puddle of something under the vehicle but as she doesn't know much about cars, she drove it to work anyway. On her way home from work the runner started running like crap and a few minutes later, died leaving her stuck on the side of the road. Everything she explained to me led me to believe that it had overheated. I know that most engines, when overheating, will shut down one or more of the cylinders and just have them pumping air to try and cool the engine down, thus causing it to run like crap.
Once I got home and I was able to look into it, I found the puddle on the ground that she mentioned, and it was in fact coolant. I popped the hood on the runner and it had no coolant at all in it. I began to try and find where it might have been leaking from. My first thought was the water pump as this is the area where it looked like it was coming from. I took off the timing belt cover to have a closer look and this is what I discovered....(See attached pics).
As you can see in the pics, the idler bearing has exploded. When this happened, it tore up my timing belt and the timing belt skipped a few notches.
What I think happened, is this bearing exploded the day before it over heated on her causing the belt to put enough tension on the water pump to allow the coolant to leak out. The timing was off, but not enough to cause the engine to not run, eventually it leaked out enough coolant to cause it to overheat and die.
Now, I can fix all of this mess, however I'm not sure what kind of internal damage may have been caused when the idler bearing exploded and when it overheated. I would hate to spend $300 in parts and all of my time, just to find out that it now has a cracked head or a shot head gasket. I know the 5VZ-FE engine in the T4R is a non-interference engine, so in theory there should be no damage to the valves in this case.
I'm just unsure as to what internal damage may have been caused when all of this happened and I need your guys' opinion.
Lastly, I have found many videos and write-ups on how to replace the timing belt but I cant seem to find anything on how to set the timing correctly when it is out like mine is. I cant really set everything to TDC with the belt on when its off already like mine is. How can I ensure everything is lined up correctly? I can set the number one to TDC but how do I know that everything else is in the correct position.
Thank in advance everyone, I really need some help here.
I need some advice from you folks here on the forum. My 99 T4R recently just broke down on my girlfriend while I was out of town. When I got back I was able to do a bit of digging into why this may have happened.
She told me that she noticed a huge puddle of something under the vehicle but as she doesn't know much about cars, she drove it to work anyway. On her way home from work the runner started running like crap and a few minutes later, died leaving her stuck on the side of the road. Everything she explained to me led me to believe that it had overheated. I know that most engines, when overheating, will shut down one or more of the cylinders and just have them pumping air to try and cool the engine down, thus causing it to run like crap.
Once I got home and I was able to look into it, I found the puddle on the ground that she mentioned, and it was in fact coolant. I popped the hood on the runner and it had no coolant at all in it. I began to try and find where it might have been leaking from. My first thought was the water pump as this is the area where it looked like it was coming from. I took off the timing belt cover to have a closer look and this is what I discovered....(See attached pics).
As you can see in the pics, the idler bearing has exploded. When this happened, it tore up my timing belt and the timing belt skipped a few notches.
What I think happened, is this bearing exploded the day before it over heated on her causing the belt to put enough tension on the water pump to allow the coolant to leak out. The timing was off, but not enough to cause the engine to not run, eventually it leaked out enough coolant to cause it to overheat and die.
Now, I can fix all of this mess, however I'm not sure what kind of internal damage may have been caused when the idler bearing exploded and when it overheated. I would hate to spend $300 in parts and all of my time, just to find out that it now has a cracked head or a shot head gasket. I know the 5VZ-FE engine in the T4R is a non-interference engine, so in theory there should be no damage to the valves in this case.
I'm just unsure as to what internal damage may have been caused when all of this happened and I need your guys' opinion.
Lastly, I have found many videos and write-ups on how to replace the timing belt but I cant seem to find anything on how to set the timing correctly when it is out like mine is. I cant really set everything to TDC with the belt on when its off already like mine is. How can I ensure everything is lined up correctly? I can set the number one to TDC but how do I know that everything else is in the correct position.
Thank in advance everyone, I really need some help here.
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