Don't push your timing belt service intervals...

[normal_dave]

Dodged a bullet here, all is well, but looks menacing. I let the Wife's 3.5L Sport blow past the 60K interval, chasing 80K. "Bad Montero owner...bad I say". What was I thinking?, obviously not.
As I recall, the belt at last interval was a local parts store item, so maybe it hasn't lasted as well as it would if OEM or equal. The Aisin TKM-003 kit is ready to go back in, and it did include the tensioner. So,"friends, don't let friends" ignore the timing belt service intervals on our beloved Monteros and Sports.

 

[J!m]

On the 300Tdi, there is a mileage as well as age-out on the belt. Mine is well below the mileage, but I need to change due to age.

Totally different truck I realize but thought I’d throw that out there.

 

[Salonika]

Makes we wonder.......do they have belt inspection criteria to go along with the recommended 60,000 mile service? For example, my truck is not a daily driver so it will likely be in the 5-10 year range before I hit the mileage recommendation for service. I suppose I should be doing a visual on it in spite of the low mileage. Basically what J!m said.......I've never heard of an age out spec for that belt so without that I guess you'd just inspect it like any other belt. Cracking, worn peaks and valleys....etc. if it looks good keep going.

 

[AZPAJERO]

As I approach the 3000 mile past due mark

Glad you're getting it changed! Time for me to make some arrangements

 

[plh]

Just did the '05 last week. 73K on the second OEM belt which was replaced the first time at 97K miles. Currently the truck has 172K miles and did the Aisin kit plus OEM tensioner this time. The belt that was removed with 73k on it looked new. It was in service about 53 months as a daily driver.

 

[Salonika]

Given the consequences of a belt failure I am sure that Mitsubishi built in an error factor for that belt. I doubt that the belt would fail within five or 10,000 miles of the recommended service mileage.

 

[J!m]

Makes we wonder.......do they have belt inspection criteria to go along with the recommended 60,000 mile service? For example, my truck is not a daily driver so it will likely be in the 5-10 year range before I hit the mileage recommendation for service. I suppose I should be doing a visual on it in spite of the low mileage. Basically what J!m said.......I've never heard of an age out spec for that belt so without that I guess you'd just inspect it like any other belt. Cracking, worn peaks and valleys....etc. if it looks good keep going.

I’m going to dig into the book now. It clearly has two sets of numbers (in typical LR fashion) for normal and “arduous “ driving conditions... five years comes to my mind but I’m looking it up now, and will post here.

For those who are not familiar, the 300Tdi is a 2.5 liter four cylinder direct injected intercooled turbo putting a wheelie-inducing 111 hp.

Found my note in the workshop manual: 9/2013 is when I did it last...

EDIT- The official figure (owners manual issued with vehicle) for the early 300Tdi is 150000km (96000miles). However, this was subsequently revised downwards to 72000 miles, with a recommendation that it be done twice as often under severe conditions.

Age out is at about six years. I couldn’t find that “officially” as LR assumes if you buy a truck, you will be driving it. But going with the 10k/year average, that’s seven years and change. I would not push it past seven, regardless of mileage.

 

[normal_dave]

I’m going to dig into the book now. It clearly has two sets of numbers (in typical LR fashion) for normal and “arduous “ driving conditions... five years comes to my mind but I’m looking it up now, and will post here.

For those who are not familiar, the 300Tdi is a 2.5 liter four cylinder direct injected intercooled turbo putting a wheelie-inducing 111 hp.

Found my note in the workshop manual: 9/2013 is when I did it last...

EDIT- The official figure (owners manual issued with vehicle) for the early 300Tdi is 150000km (96000miles). However, this was subsequently revised downwards to 72000 miles, with a recommendation that it be done twice as often under severe conditions.

Age out is at about six years. I couldn’t find that “officially” as LR assumes if you buy a truck, you will be driving it. But going with the 10k/year average, that’s seven years and change. I would not push it past seven, regardless of mileage.

Well, it gets worse. Going to have to surrender my Montero-card I guess. Confession time.

Jim is right on target with the age-out discussion. I can't believe it has been 7 years since I did this job! What else have I been working on all this time? I looked in my 3-ring binder, strangely there's a blank space around 105K and June 2011. Typical. I seem to finish out a big job, tools everywhere, late at night, "I'll cleanup, then log the repairs tomorrow". Tomorrow never comes. Pulled the receipts...Doh! FWIW, this was a Gates belt when new, and about 74K miles on the interval.

Why didn't I replace that stupid bolt last time? Did I not know? Was I not on the ever-helpful Expo Mitsubishi forum yet? Run out of time? "Shame, shame, shame". Current project on hold until my new bolt and washer get here, everything else is ready to go.
Well, I survived this one... going back together correctly, passenger side:
Driver's side:

Crankshaft at TDC:

And after two rotations and 5 minutes of Bluegrass music on the shop radio:

I think I could have pulled the pin with my telescoping magnet tool. Yay!
For the record, the '03 3.5L Montero Sport is different setting the tensioner than the '02 Montero, due to the angle of the tensioner mount. Note my oil filter adapter is on the driver's side. This has caused me headaches, because I own both vehicles, and the instructions show CCW tension setting for the 3.5L Sport. This one takes CW tension, leaving the holes on top. I also recall writing elsewhere that I had to remove the A/C compressor on the '03 Sport...not true. The mind is a terrible thing. I must have remembered another vehicle. Even though the instructions indicate, I thankfully haven't had to touch the A/C compressor on either vehicle.
This is not nearly as bad a job as I remembered. It helps to have cleaned up my 1960s one-car garage beforehand.

Staging area is a horizontal hinged, wall mounted, solid door, from the local Goodwill store. It's designed to fold up against the wall when not in use to create floor space.

Trouble is, it usually looks like this:

and worse yet, the workbench looked like this: (reminds me of an "I Spy" picture book).

There, it's all out in the open, I feel like a weight has been lifted off...Anybody else's shop look this bad? Somehow, I don't think Toasty's garage ever looked this disheveled. Will I ever improve my bad habits? Will I have to resort to driving non-Mitsubishi vehicles? Stay tuned...and get your Aisin timing belt kit on order now, schedule the downtime, post up questions quick before I forget how to do it again.

 

[MrGalantguy]

Yours look better than mine. My garage is such a mess and disarray since I have soo much going on and the free time I have i would rather spend time with my kids. Its definitely my priority when the holidays are over to clean the crap and reorganize it. I need the room to work on my 2 other projects in there anyways.

 

[plh]

Well, it gets worse. Going to have to surrender my Montero-card I guess. Confession time.

Jim is right on target with the age-out discussion. I can't believe it has been 7 years since I did this job! What else have I been working on all this time? I looked in my 3-ring binder, strangely there's a blank space around 105K and June 2011. Typical. I seem to finish out a big job, tools everywhere, late at night, "I'll cleanup, then log the repairs tomorrow". Tomorrow never comes. Pulled the receipts...Doh! FWIW, this was a Gates belt when new, and about 74K miles on the interval.

Why didn't I replace that stupid bolt last time? Did I not know? Was I not on the ever-helpful Expo Mitsubishi forum yet? Run out of time? "Shame, shame, shame". Current project on hold until my new bolt and washer get here, everything else is ready to go.View attachment 486494
Well, I survived this one... going back together correctly, passenger side:
Driver's side:

Crankshaft at TDC:

And after two rotations and 5 minutes of Bluegrass music on the shop radio:

I think I could have pulled the pin with my telescoping magnet tool. Yay!
For the record, the '03 3.5L Montero Sport is different setting the tensioner than the '02 Montero, due to the angle of the tensioner mount. Note my oil filter adapter is on the driver's side. This has caused me headaches, because I own both vehicles, and the instructions show CCW tension setting for the 3.5L Sport. This one takes CW tension, leaving the holes on top. I also recall writing elsewhere that I had to remove the A/C compressor on the '03 Sport...not true. The mind is a terrible thing. I must have remembered another vehicle. Even though the instructions indicate, I thankfully haven't had to touch the A/C compressor on either vehicle.
This is not nearly as bad a job as I remembered. It helps to have cleaned up my 1960s one-car garage beforehand.

Staging area is a horizontal hinged, wall mounted, solid door, from the local Goodwill store. It's designed to fold up against the wall when not in use to create floor space.

Trouble is, it usually looks like this:

and worse yet, the workbench looked like this: (reminds me of an "I Spy" picture book).
here, it's all out in the open, I feel like a weight has been lifted off...Anybody else's shop look this bad? Somehow, I don't think Toasty's garage ever looked this disheveled. Will I ever improve my bad habits? Will I have to resort to driving non-Mitsubishi vehicles? Stay tuned...and get your Aisin timing belt kit on order now, schedule the downtime, post up questions quick before I forget how to do it again.

Dealer did my 97K service and didn't replace the Crank bolt. Updated mine at 172K.

 

[Salonika]

I know this topic has been covered 100 different ways, and it’s been a long time since I’ve wasted time searching for info, but my understanding of the whole crank bolt thing was due to inadequate torquing by Mitsubishi during production. That’s why they were coming loose. I’m running the old one, but i have a new one which I’m planning to install at my 60k service. All I can see is the old bolt was longer, unless there was also a material change. I’m installing the new one only because why not do it I guess. But I’m driving around with the old one on a rebuilt motor and I don’t loose sleep over it. And I even had the damn thing come loose on me at about 85k like 15 years ago. I think the Mitsu parts guys told me about the torque thing.

 

[plh]

I know this topic has been covered 100 different ways, and it’s been a long time since I’ve wasted time searching for info, but my understanding of the whole crank bolt thing was due to inadequate torquing by Mitsubishi during production. That’s why they were coming loose. I’m running the old one, but i have a new one which I’m planning to install at my 60k service. All I can see is the old bolt was longer, unless there was also a material change. I’m installing the new one only because why not do it I guess. But I’m driving around with the old one on a rebuilt motor and I don’t loose sleep over it. And I even had the damn thing come loose on me at about 85k like 15 years ago. I think the Mitsu parts guys told me about the torque thing.

Is there a TSB on the torque on Gen 3? I know there is one on Gen 2 3.0l (SR-01-002) to increase it to 134 ft/lbs . FSM for the 3.8l Gen 3 says 137 ft/lbs. I went with that.