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I have two things I need to fix. The first, is that the front valve cover is leaking a bit and I want to replace them both. The second, which will happen in a few months, is that I need to replace the timing belt while it is still in time (187k miles). My question is, is their anything else I need to replace while doing either of these jobs?
I recently replaced both of my front strut assemblies and if I would have known that the sway bar linkages were usually replaced when the struts go bad I would have had my van back on the road a few days earlier. That is why, I am asking before I purchase the parts for these two jobs. Thanks so much for reading.
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ok…assuming you were just talking about the timing belt replacement….looking at:
http://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=3290592&cc=1359435&jsn=515
Thanks for the reply. I will replace all of that this summer.
Any thoughts on the valve cover gasket replacement that I will be doing in the next two weeks?
I think one reliant question is how long do you intend to keep on driving the car ?
I may be wrong , but as some one mentioned , do not over heat the engine . From what I have been able to gather , many / most blown head gaskets are due to over heating ?
God bless
WyrI will drive it until I haul it to a junk yard… if I can put 400k on it and not have to replace the engine/trans I’d be happy…love this little van… wish I had a truck instead but I can do almost everything I need with it.
I am not having any problems with over heating. I’m pretty sure I don’t have a blown head gasket… I was just doing work on the van to prevent major breakdowns later. It still has the original timing belt and I know it is way over-do to replace… the van is my winter vehicle and when I park it this spring I will do the timing belt change.
Yes I was referring to timing belt set up. As far as valve cover gasket, I would not think of much else but again I am not familiar with that vehicle. Why not do both at same time later in summer unless your valve cover is extensively leaking. You could add plugs if only do for maintenance.
Going on a long trip in the next few weeks and I know I won’t have time to do the timing belt. I might be able to take care of the valve cover before leaving. Looking at around 2400 miles round trip. The cover isn’t leaking a lot but it would just be one less thing on the road. Plugs are pretty new.
I replaced the front and rear valve cover gaskets on my daughter’s ’00 Sienna last Spring and be forewarned that dealing with the rear valve cover can be a stone-cold PITA.
To make it easier on yourself make sure to remove the windshield cowl beforehand to give yourself some much-needed additional space to work with. The real problem lies with a demented Toyota engineer who thought it would be funny to drape a wiring harness across the rear valve cover which barely has any play in it to remove and install the cover. I pulled like crazy on it and pulled it aside as much as possible with a strong bungie cord and it was still all I could do to remove it and reinstall it. Let’s just say I was at the end of my rope and cussing ruled the day 🙂
It took awhile but I f-i-n-a-l-l-y got it done. There’s also an O2(?) sensor along the firewall which some people on the Sienna boards recommend should be swapped out at the same time but money was a little tight so I left it alone.
There’s some good info on the dedicated Sienna boards and I recommend them highly.
I forgot to say that you’ll need to inspect the door jam sticker to see when you’re Sienna was built as there’s two different valve cover gasket sets for the 2000 Sienna. I didn’t want you tearing into the job and then discovering the gaskets don’t fit.
When you did this did you have to remove the intake manifold?
[quote=”headknocker” post=183620]I replaced the front and rear valve cover gaskets on my daughter’s ’00 Sienna last Spring and be forewarned that dealing with the rear valve cover can be a stone-cold PITA.
To make it easier on yourself make sure to remove the windshield cowl beforehand to give yourself some much-needed additional space to work with. The real problem lies with a demented Toyota engineer who thought it would be funny to drape a wiring harness across the rear valve cover which barely has any play in it to remove and install the cover. I pulled like crazy on it and pulled it aside as much as possible with a strong bungie cord and it was still all I could do to remove it and reinstall it. Let’s just say I was at the end of my rope and cussing ruled the day 🙂
It took awhile but I f-i-n-a-l-l-y got it done. There’s also an O2(?) sensor along the firewall which some people on the Sienna boards recommend should be swapped out at the same time but money was a little tight so I left it alone.
There’s some good info on the dedicated Sienna boards and I recommend them highly.
Thanks so much! My rear gasket really has the smallest of leaks(just a little out of one corner vers all across the front of the front one)…front one is way worse. I’m thinking I will just replace the front one before my trip and when I have the van parked, for the late spring/summer, I will put the back one on. I will have it all apart doing the timing belt replacement then as well. Back one sounds like it will be all kinds of fun 🙂
[quote=”twiggy02919″ post=183652]When you did this did you have to remove the intake manifold?
Yeah, you need to remove the intake manifold to gain access to the rear cover. The front cover is a piece of cake and the rear cover is a living hell. I was so relieved when I was somehow able to reinstall the rear cover without dislodging or mangling the new gasket.
[quote=”kevinscottadkins” post=183656]Thanks so much! My rear gasket really has the smallest of leaks(just a little out of one corner vers all across the front of the front one)…front one is way worse. I’m thinking I will just replace the front one before my trip and when I have the van parked, for the late spring/summer, I will put the back one on. I will have it all apart doing the timing belt replacement then as well. Back one sounds like it will be all kinds of fun :)[/quote]
Yeah, you’re gonna have all kinds of “fun” with the rear one. You’ll be thinking what kind of jacka$$ puts a wiring harness with little play in it across that stinkin’ cover…just a horrible design. As you can tell the front cover is a piece of cake whereas the rear one will have you questioning your sanity 🙂update:
I just finished up the timing belt job, replacing the : timing belt, water pump, timing pulley, and timing tensioner. I probably should have replaced the crank and camshafts seals while I was in there but they looked good.
I did end up purchasing a few new tools : 250 ft lbs torque wrench, lisle spill free funnel kit, stud remover socket set, E3(star) impact socket set, and wheel puller set. Beyond having everything I needed to do the job the hardest part was holding the engine to torque down the harmonic balancer.
I did, have one of those oh crap moments though. I had just got everything back together and was attempting to start the motor. It took several cranks and spitting and sputtering around but when it fired up, it smoothed right out. I thought for sure that I had screwed something up or got a tooth off. I have put a few hundred miles on it so far and it seems good. No leaks and to me it sounds even quieter than before (almost like it isn’t running).
Good video of this exact motor in a Lexus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DI60MOkf168 .
I have also replaced the front valve pan gasket with out any issue and will do the back one later this summer.
Thanks to everyone who read/replied to this thread! Gave me a lot of good info that helped me complete this job with out any real issues.
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