That's true of most vehicles. If the timing chain fails the motor will likely be ruined. I've seen it happen to a Chevy Traverse. Replacing the chain or belt is just a standard preventive maintenance practice.
Yes, timing belts get replaced at those intervals. I've had 3 Toyotas. When the timing chain gets replaced, the water pump will also be replaced at the same time.
Timing belts, if that model has it does need replacing at 100,000. Some Toyota have went back to chains, which will wear over time, but rarely break. You'll get much more than 100,000 with a chain.
If they are well taken care of, they will give you over 300,000 miles of use, our 2007 Tundra has around 250,000 miles and our Sierra just turn over 200,000, both run like new, the Sierra gets the best mpg and the Tundra is built like a tank, I've put some incredible loads in it, with garden soil and firewood, to levels that were on par with our 1989 F-250 SC 4X4 diesel truck could haul, sadly that truck failed us at just over 100,000 miles, what it would have cost us for a new engine, we were able to get the used Tundra. A friend of ours owns a 2004 Highlander that has over 300,000 miles on it. Toyotas are awesome for their durability.
Yes. It's best to replace them when recommended, than putting it off until your stranded on the side of the road.
It can be real costly if the engine is a zero clearance type, that is the valves will hit the pistons, which leads to the need for new heads and pistons, our friend had the timing belt of on his Highlander, same 3.3 engine that's in our Sienna, it motivated us to take our van in and replace the timing belt, I couldn't find that it had ever been replaced according to Car Fax, the Toyota shop said it was due and while they were at it I had a new water pump installed. The 3.3 engine requires belt replacement at 90,000 miles, the newer 3.5 engine uses a chain, which I understand is a lifetime chain, our Tundra with the 5.7 V-8 also has chain, I read about two Tundra's that made it to one million miles, one of them was an oil field service truck, Toyota gave him a new truck and pulled his old truck's engine and checked it out, they found it to still be in excellent condition, the guy had it regularly serviced, I read about this before we bought our Tundra with 244,000 miles, after reading about the million mile trucks, I didn't worry about those miles, Car Fax indicted that the truck was regularly serviced. In my growing up years, 40's and 50's, about the only vehicles that made it to 100,000 miles were Lincolns, Cadillacs, Buicks and Mercedes Benz.
Yea, you're going to want to look that up (belt or chain) for Toyota's and Honda's.
Oh, I forgot how the AC quit working the year before, ha. hahamy toyota sienna got a little over 320k miles, i have mentioned elsewhere here. someone gave it to us with close to 200k on it, it didn't have any issues really, until it caught fire.
I would have been so livid about him wrecking my vehicle.
For the older, our 2005 Sienna needs a timing belt every 90,000, it's the same 3.3 engine that's in the older Highlander, our friends have a 2004. He has somewhere in the neighborhood of 300,000 miles and our Sienna recently turn over 200,000 miles. The newer Highlanders with the bigger engine have timing chains, our 2007 Tundra has chains on the 5.7 engine, I've heard chains are life time, the Tundra has over 270,000 and runs like new. I don't know how the used car costs are around where everyone else lives but around here they are sky high, we've had a few letters from the dealer asking if we wanted to sell our used vehicles. I have heard that some people are having issues with CVT transmissions, actually a lot of the newer vehicles have throw-away transmissions, I've had some friends mention that when they needed to get some work on those transmissions, they were told by transmission shops that they wouldn't work on them.
We bought a 2014 Honda pilot this spring. Best car I have ever driven.
@viking I think with the CVT transmissions, it depends on who is making the transmission. The Toyota and Honda CVTs are holding up well. The Toyota especially has a good reputation in the small cars like Corolla or Prius, easily lasting 300,000 miles.
Yeah so far so good, we haven't had any troubles and it is great getting out of my road which has been a slushy icy mess. The x-mode and aggressive tires with the 9 inches clearance do better than my husband's dodge Ram.
