How to replace the timing belt on a 96 Toyota Camry with a 2.2 liter 4 cylinder engine. It's actually pretty easy. Just make sure you double-check the timing like I do.
FYI - 1. Don't need to remove the alternator to replace the belt unless replacing the water pump which I normally replace with a new Aisin pump. Only the alternator bracket has to be removed and detached from the alternator. 2. If replacing the belt, you should also replace the tensioner and idler pulleys with new ones. The old pulleys will not last to the next belt replacement and worn pulleys will stress out the new belt and potential make it snap. They WILL eventually start making noise during engine warm up 3. Camshaft and crankshaft oil seals will also not likely last to the next belt replacement .... they will leak and oil will get on to the belt. 4. With Camry's with over 150K miles, the oil pump seal will also start to leak oil. 5. The PS pump pivot bolt does not require loosening. 6. Before buttoning everything up, start the engine to let the belt seat in ... then recheck the belt tension. Otherwise a good video just for replacing the belt.
Thanks. If you want, you can go to my 5SFE TB replacement video to see what I'm talking about. The issues I pointed out usually occur after the 1st timing belt replacement and with high mileage Camry's.
Hardly Moving Productions I don’t know how you’re going to get the power steering belt off without loosening the pivot bolt. I don’t do this job on my vehicles at 90k, usually around 125k. I’ve never seen an oem timing belt fail on its own, even with engines with a lot more mileage. Usually a bearing fails in a water pump or an idler bearing or oil will leak on belt. Always use good parts, oem for Toyota belts are mitsuboshi, replace all parts when you do this job, oil pump seal and rubber round gasket. Never cheap out on gaskets, stay away from Dorman parts. I don’t care for gates belts, their ok but seem to start making a noise after a while. This job is too involved to go the cheap route. A haynes manual and you can do this! Most older Toyota’s are non interference engines, so if you screw up, no harm, just do it again. Check your motor to make sure
@Luis Estevez You can turn the crank pulley (harmonic balancer) with the belts on. Don't turn the engine by the cam pulley when the timing belt is on. You can check the timing with all the belts off, but you'll need to remove them and the lower timing cover to access the tensioner if you need to move the timing belt. Every belt is different - timing belt, power steering, alternator belt.
My 1996 Camry just threw the belt this morning on my way to work. Thankfully I was only a mile from home and had backup vehicle. @Hardly Moving Productions- How big a deal is it to replace the oil seals on crankshaft, cam shaft, & oil pump?
Thanks for the tip about moving the belt after it was "one notch off", I wish I had scene this tip, before I removed the timing belt about 10 times! Finally saw this and used your tip, worked like a prayer answered. I removed the oil filter for more wrench clearance along with the radiator plastic overflow. I had a heck of a time removing the (2) bracket mounts just above the pulled. I also replaced both Idler pulleys and water, pump while I was doing the job. Saw also had to replace the crankshaft and oll pump seals as well, but didn't do that this time. It took me about 24 hours to do this repair, slow but got it done. thanks for taking the time to do this. Another tip is torque specs both idler pullies 31ft lbs., crank pulley 80ft lbs, dog bone 47ft. lbs and lug nuts 76ft. lbs. I replaced the water pump /w housing and new thermostat. Bought a "real" oem one from Toyota, along with Toyota antifreeze. Put on new power steering belt & serpentine belt too, while it was all torn down,. Going to donate this car to a local charity and I figure it was cheap insurance.
quick question: what if when you turn the balancer to "0" the crankshaft pulley is not Top dead center?? do you remove it and adjust it while belt is off?
What happens if you change the timing to one of the other degrees on it? Like if theres other numbers shouldnt you be able to go to those for different power ratios? Im new to mechanics and just wanna learn a little about the timing and all that with it
The reason you were a tooth off is because you had too much slack between the cam and the crank on the left side. There's a solution to this problem. Not many people know this trick because I don't think it's taught at dealerships but it works perfect every time. What you do is you get all your timing marks lined up then remove the belt just like you did. What we're going to do is use the Crank as a second tensioner. To do this you turn the crank clockwise 5 degrees. There will be marks on the block for 0,5,10 degrees. Make certain all other timing marks are lined up properly. Now install the new belt and try to get the belt as tight as you can between the cam or cams and the crank (same trick works for SOHC or DOHC engines) Once the new belt is installed turn the crankshaft COUNTER clockwise about 5 degrees until the timing marks are lined up again, just like they were when you first removed the belt. You should see and feel the Timing belt tighten up on the left side. 5 degrees seems to be the perfect amount to keep from re-adjusting the tensioner and/or being 1 tooth off like Paul was. After you turn the crank 5 degrees counter clockwise to tension the left side of the belt, now you can go ahead and release the 14mm tensioner bolt to tension the right side. Once the belt has been tensioned by the crank and the tensioner go ahead and turn the crank 2 complete revolutions just like Paul did and re-check your marks. If you did it right everything should be lined up correctly and the belt should be tensioned correctly. I've done it this way dozens of times and I never have to re-adjust the tensioner and I'm never 1 tooth off.
I love these camrys... Drives even better than 2019, smooth like a baby butt. I just bought one for 600 with 165k and I will do the timing belt replacement...
Good idea to line up the crank and cam to top dead center. But real shade tree mechanics mark the belt and the sprockets. I use acrylic paint. You can mark both the position of the belt on the sprocket and the position of the sprocket in relation to the engine. If you are installing a new belt, you can copy your marks. If the belt is broken, you will need to time it from scratch. I have been working on multiple oil leaks on my 4cyl Camry, so I will be taking out the belt again. Next time, a sequence of four dots of different colors. Last time, I had one tiny dot left and I had to guess what the right position was. Got it right, but I don't want to leave it to luck again. When I am sure there are no leaks in the front of the engine, then the new belt will go in. Putting in the timing belt itself is about the easiest part of the the job. The hardest thing to do is changing the camshaft seal. Lots of fails. If you remove the back plate behind the camshaft sprocket, you can can then remove the cap which covers the top half of the seal. It will be easier to clean the area and you will not have to drive it in and risk deforming it or having it fail in some other way. Or damaging the surfaces trying to get it out.
A lot of great advices from the video and from the comments. I might be going to change the TB and other items by myself when I fully understand the steps. I just started fixing car myself about two months ago by watching youtube lol!
you make that look so easy. my power steering pump and oil pump leaks so everything is covered in gunk. my timing belt is so bad its flapping around. just my luck i cant get the harmonic balancer off. even broke my ratchet trying to get the bolt out. I just put it back together without putting the upper cover on so I can keep an eye on it.
The harmonic balancer bolt can be really hard to deal with. It's usually easy if you have an impact wrench. If you don't have one, maybe you can have a shop loosen up that bolt, and you can do the rest. If your timing belt falls off, your car will stop running. The 5S-fe is a non-interference engine, so you won't bend the valves. It's better to fix it now, so you don't get stranded somewhere.
Trying to replace the timing belt. Any recommendations on how to remove the 2 bolts at 0.54 of the video. Im stuck ive tried my last resort already. Which was using a chisel to get the bolts off..but no. Thx
Those bolts are the worst! I used the box end of a wrench, then hooked the box end of a second wrench onto the open end to get more leverage. If that doesn't work, you can try removing some motor mounts and dropping the timing belt side of the engine down a few inches so you can reach the bolts from the fender well.
Whats up with the huge price differences in Timming belts kit prices. I see a complete kit for like 60$ and then I see the OEM timming belt itself for 75$. I dont want to be stingy but is it really worth the hige diffrence in cost? Thanks
Timing belt kits from discount auto parts stores like Autozone and Oreilleys are cheaper than OEM, and they're usually good quality. Don't go online and find the cheapest thing from China though. Replacing your timing belt is a lot of work, and do you really want to get stranded somewhere and have to get towed and re-do all that work because you saved $50? The 5S-FE is a non-interference engine, so if the belt breaks, your engine doesn't run, but it doesn't hurt anything. On some engines, a broken timing belt will result in serious engine damage like bent valves. Don't take chances with your timing belt. Get a good quality belt.
Hold the bracket in one hand and wiggle it while getting the lower bolts started with the other hand. It's a bit tricky. Don't tighten the bolts until all of them are in. hope that helps!
Paul Shpakov Thank you very much for your response. I have one last question regarding those two marks. In many videos people put white marks on the spinning things themselves . If your vehicle have the factory one's like you show in this video and you are able to locate them, you won't have to do that either?
i have a 5sfe aswell but i got the timing done.starts up 1st click.but the car runs a bucket of shit.sluggish acceleration.very rich. is the timing or ignition timing off?
Could be. It's easy to put that timing belt on wrong. Turn the crank to 0 degrees (top dead center). Just line up the horizontal cut in the crank pulley with the marks on the timing cover. Remove the upper timing cover, and use a mirror to check the position of the camshaft pulley. It should line up with the timing mark. You might have to turn the engine one more revolution. Just watch the video ^ it will show you how. :)
you can hold the flywheel from turning with a pry bar on the back of the engine, by the starter, and use a regular breaker bar to get the harmonic balancer bolt off. The impact wrench just makes it much easier.
I have a manual transmission which makes it really easy removing the harmonic balancer bolt. I just put the car in gear and dropped a tile on the brake pedal preventing the engine from spinning. After that, I was able to remove the bolt using a breaker bar.
Actually, I replaced the water pump, oil pump, and the cylinder head in this video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dZtBcY4ie7c.html then I just took the part about the timing belt and put it here. You're right though: If you're already working on the timing belt, changing the water pump and hardware is a good idea.
I did a little searching on the internet for you and it looks like it is NOT an interference engine. So that means if your timing belt broke, everything is probably ok - just replace the belt.
I have just the 1994 camry 4 cyl, and confirming Paul's statement - it is a non interference one. Less than a year ago I did replacement of a head gasket on mine, using that other Paul's video, man it was a hard job, especially removing that darned intake manifold from the back of engine. But all came out good in the end.
I did this and the car is running smooth, except the temperature gauge goes all the way to hot. The car is not overheating though. I replaced thermostat but it is still overheating according to gauge. I put the heater on and air comes out warm.
Check the ground cables going from the body to the engine. A loose ground connection can make sensors read incorrectly. Also check the temp sensor and connector.
My car is a slipomatic tranny so I need to figure out how to torque that crank bolt. I am thinking about pulling off the starter motor and blocking the flywheel with a block of wood. Has anyone else done this?
I got the crank bolt loose by using a breaker bar blocked against the ground and then bump cranking the starter. The distributor coil wires should be disconnected so there is no chance of the engine starting.
The belt will get damaged if any of the pulleys are not aligned or if they don't turn properly. Replace the tensioner pulley, and water pump. After you install the new belt, put the harmonic balancer (crank pulley) back on, but leave the timing cover off. Start the engine for a few seconds and watch to see if the belt is walking off the edge of any of the pulleys. If it does, something isn't lined up right.
This is not a step by step. A lot of people don't know what to loosen or tighten. Where the parts are, and how much to tighten. We need a video that explains each step
+Paul Shpakov I tried taking them out, still won't turn for some reason though. Ya it stopped running and then I found the broken timing belt. Hopefully didn't throw a rod or something, I guess I'll keep tinkering with it and see what happens.
Did you ever find out why your crank wouldn't turn over? My 96 did the same thing and I just bought the belt and I am planning on changing it in a couple of hours... Just curious thanks!
+MrSteve01974 No, still trying to figure it out. Someone told me I have to put the belt on first and then try to rock the cam back and forth and the crankshaft.
T belt water pump oil pu p seal print two cam seals oil pump oring front seal tensions and idler 45/min start to finish my friend could do the in 30 min we worked there twenty three years and I work in the parts dept. Its easy if I've done it a few times 10/12/13/15 16 air tools and e crank bolt one time someone lput lock!tight red on crank bolt take out the starter and jam a screw driver in there teeth flywheel block thank god I didn't brake anything that doesn't count
To remove the harmonic balancer bolt without an impact wrench, you'll need to hold the flywheel to prevent the crankshaft from turning. You can remove the lower flywheel cover or starter, and jam a pry bar into the flywheel to hold it.
