- This topic has 7 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 5 years, 5 months ago by
.
-
Topic
-
I took off my timing covers today and found what I would consider to be an excessive amount of red colored, rust like dust inside the covers, on the belt and around the camshafts. If my camshaft seals were leaking, would it be rust dust? Wouldn’t it be oil? Maybe my tensioner pulley, or the idler pulley are wearing out? I have purchased a kit to replace the belt, the water pump, the pulleys and the hydraulic plunger so that will all be new. I’m just wondering while I”m in there should I replace the camshaft seals or do you guys think it’s coming from the belt or one of the other components? I’d hate to go to all the trouble to do the work and do an incomplete job.
BTW – Car has about 105K miles on it, this is the first timing belt change.
Appreciate any advice you guys have, thanks so much.
Crankshaft
Front Camshaft
Rear Camshaft
Upper timing belt cover
-
Replies
-
The source shouldn’t be so mysterious given the belt is encased. Pull the belt and then spin those idler/tensioner pulleys. The water pump might have a bad bearing too. Get that last aluminum front cover off and you might be able to answer your own question. One other thing I’d pay attention to is if a drive pulley or an outside tensioner is showing any rust radiating. I can’t see those timing covers being SO airtight that something else couldn’t have crept inside.
Jotmon1 – I think you’re talking about the tensioner pulley just up and to the left of the crankshaft? I noticed that too and will inspect it once I remove the plunger and take off the belt. I’ll be replacing that anyways but it would be goo do know if maybe that’s my source of rust dust.
Thanks,
Jobless – I’ve never had any issues with the water pump and after taking off the bracket around the pump, it actually looks very clean in context of the surrounding environment. I do believe, as you suggested, it’s probably a bearing from one of the pulleys. I’ll update you guys once I tear it down.
Thanks everyone….
*** UPDATE ***
Yesterday I finished tearing this down and there appeared to be some oil leaking out of the rear camshaft seal. I went ahead and replaced both the rear and front camshaft seals along with the timing belt. Of course, I”m not convinced this would be the source of the rust dust and I’m still not clear as to what the sources of that was. I just realized as I’m writing this, I didn’t clean the inside of the timing covers, which would have been the smart thing to do for the next time I service it. Regardless, the water pump had no signs of being bad, no leaks, etc. Additionally the pulleys also were properly spinning and not in bad shape or anything. Additionally, there were no signs of the rust dust from the block anywhere. All I can think of is it was coming from the belt? As I mentioned earlier it was the original belt so maybe Toyota manufactured belts are known for this? Don’t know, at this point, I don’t really care, it has new pulley’s, belt, water pump, and camshaft seals.
Thanks everyone for your input!
Just a thought…Toyota uses a lot of alloys that form protective oxide layers…and sometimes destructive oxide layers, such as the frames on Tacoma’s a while back. At any rate, I see similar excess dust in my Highlander and it seems like dust from interaction of the belt and the upper toothed cam pulleys. They seem to develop an oxide layer outside the belt travel area…so I suspect the dust is from the fringe of the belt on those upper cam pulleys. I had only done Honda timing belts before…never saw anything like this behind a Honda belt cover.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.