What’s the Point?

I hired someone to do a timing belt job in April of 2021. At that point I knew nothing about my 4Runner, or cars in general. I replaced a water pump on a 1979 Olds 98 in the eighties but that was about it.

He quoted me $630 for the timing belt job. The day before he was scheduled to arrive, he offered to do the valve cover gaskets claiming it would only be $70 more and made sense to do it “since he’d already be in there”. That night, after I’d cancelled all my client calls for the next day, he texted me saying he got the days mixed up and pushed it a day. Unfortunately that meant I’d be spending a lot of time on client calls instead of watching and learning like I’d planned. I managed to get some photos between calls but I didn’t look at them for several days after.

I’d learned enough to ask him to replace the crank and cam seals but what I hadn’t learned is that there’s no reason to be in a position to replace valve cover gaskets during a timing belt job. Missed red flag #1.

I offered to supply a timing belt kit I’d learned about via T4R.org but he said he wouldn’t warranty the work unless he used OEM parts from his own suppliers. Missed red flag #2.

I also knew enough to know that when he asked for my keys, he was using the bump-start method of breaking the crank bolt. It didn’t occur to me to ask how the hell he was going to tighten that damn bolt when he put everything back together. Missed red flag #3.

After discovering he’d used an Autozone Timing Belt kit (red and blue box in the image above & Missed red flag #4), I decided to learn to do all this shit myself. It’s taken a lot of time and effort but now I know whatever work I do, it’s OEM parts and it’s done right.

This website is for me, to document all the work I’ve done that I never thought I’d be able to do. And if I hadn’t quit drinking on March 29, 2019, I certainly would not be capable of doing any of it. Well, the fuel filter. I could’ve done the fuel filter. Probably.