Help re RX300 timing belt

[James Morse]

@fastpakr, do you know anyone in town where he can use their lift?
kind of oddball question - just thought maybe you'd know someone
commercial shops probably have rules about it

 

[fastpakr]

I don't, sorry.

 

[James Morse]

now I wish I'd put in a lift, huh.
other half isn't entirely thrilled about the process (nor am I)

 

[sgtsandman]

If the pulleys are on the passenger side, the bolt is standard twist.

The bolt shank on the CR-Vs were pretty beefy. I wouldn’t be worried about breaking the bolt.

 

[James Morse]

Thanks.
Yeah I never seen in any of the multiple vids any mention of bolt breaking, seems unlikely.

 

[James Morse]

Some cities have bays w/ lift that you can rent like 20/hr. Can't find any here though.
Big problem. Other half is about ready to drive it or haul it or whatever to Toyota/Lexus shop and have them do it, knowing it will probably be 2k. If my guy can't find a place to work on it, or, even if he does and can't get the bolt out, there's not really any other options except trash the whole vehicle which I think would be dumb.
I have to believe there are guys with home shops with a lift where he could do it.

 

[fastpakr]

Give Hamren Auto Service a call - see if they can give you an approximation of the cost for all the work you want done.

 

[James Morse]

ok thanks.
basically it's just "r/r timing belt and water pump" sounds simple, if you were doing water pump on Ranger it'd be like, easy, afaik. on Lexus it's a nightmare. At this point would even be willing to forget the water pump, but the thing is, once you have the timing belt off, you are -at- the water pump and to do it later means complete disassembly of everything again and the difference in parts cost is negligible, it's the labor.
I'm sure my guy is tearing out his hair about it. I remember when I checked on him one time he's like "just this one last bolt and we're home free". yup, one bolt. stuck. four days ago.

 

[James Morse]

"Around 650" they said (labor).
Guess that's cheaper than Lexus shop.
They weren't real excited about working on it after somebody else did.
Sounds like that's the backup position if my guy gives up / can't do it.
If you've had good luck with them.
They didn't have any problem using the parts I got that's a plus, Lexus shop probably wouldn't and the parts would be way more.
They just price it as a water pump job because all the other stuff has to come off anyway so you just replace belts when you put it back together it doesn't add anything for labor over the water pump.

 

[sgtsandman]

Last time I had to pay someone to do work on the CR-V, I found a local shop in the yellow pages or on the internet that was a retired Honda tech. He did great work and was way cheaper than a dealership. Maybe someone like that is around you?

 

[sgtsandman]

"Around 650" they said (labor).
Guess that's cheaper than Lexus shop.
They weren't real excited about working on it after somebody else did.
Sounds like that's the backup position if my guy gives up / can't do it.
If you've had good luck with them.
They didn't have any problem using the parts I got that's a plus, Lexus shop probably wouldn't and the parts would be way more.
They just price it as a water pump job because all the other stuff has to come off anyway so you just replace belts when you put it back together it doesn't add anything for labor over the water pump.

A lot of shops don’t like to follow up on someone else’s work. They never know what they are getting into or what kind of hack job the guy before them did. I can sympathize. I’ve seen it a few times when other units sends us a plane to fix that they can’t.

 

[Curious Hound]

It's almost always a PITA to take over a project from someone else. We even try to avoid that at work. If night shift starts something and doesn't finish before we (day shift) get there, something will most likely go wrong. We try not to turn over anything like that to them either. In theory, we're all professionals and should be able to pick up and finish the job. In reality, everybody has a different way of doing things or something doesn't get passed on in the turnover. "Where did they put the bolts for this part?" "Is this the new circuit board we need to put on? Or is it the bad one they took off?" Etc.

 

[James Morse]

Yes I understand that and I'm probably lucky they didn't just say, someone else had it apart, we don't want it.
I told them well at least you know everything will come apart easily (except the bolt).
I might find cheaper. That shop was recommended by faspakr who is local here so that's worth quite a bit to me.
They knew exactly what I was talking about.
At this point 650 isn't looking horrible, my set price with my guy was 250 so see, that "would have" been great, but now look.
Plus during trying to get it off holding the top pulley and reefing on the crankshaft bolt, I'm pretty sure the timing belt slipped a couple notches so it runs but not well and has blinking CEL so it might have to be hauled over.
Guy said he would fix that for nothing (put back the way it was) but at this point not sure that's even smart. Hauler probably what $100 in-town.
Good lord. Now if my guy locates a lift -and- gets the bolt out, great, but I'm not hearing any good news from him yet.
We're talking incremental $400 plus probably haul it over but in retrospect this is turning out penny wise and pound foolish.
All the other work he did was fine, if somebody says "I can do it" and you trust them then you base it on that. And of course I hate being in the middle because it's not my car, and I made recommends based on the best info I had, but looking back, knowing what I do now, I would not have gone that route, of course.
And I'd still have to pay my guy something, but not lots, he didn't do the job.

 

[James Morse]

That's what I get for trying to be helpful.
I think next time Lexus has a real issue my answer will be "Take it up to the Lexus dealer".
It's a lot of time and screwing around and car out of service and nobody happy.
250 parts + 650 labor (if I do that, which seems likely) + 100 haul it over there = 1000 which is not lots less than Lexus would probably charge, without all the screwing around.
Plus give my guy -something- he spent a ton of time on it and bought some special tools he didn't have. Everyone is getting the short end of this.

 

[CrabGuy]

FWIW When I had the same work done at a independent Toyota shop it came to about $1200 including parts. That makes the quote you have from a shop look pretty good. Sometimes you just have to grin and bear it. Having to pay your mobile mechanic would be an act of kindness since he really hasn't completed anything yet.