I think it's time I had the cam belt changed. The last owner said he had it inspected at 60K and it was Ok then; now done 75K. Is this a job for myself or the garage?

I think general concensus is it's an annoying, fiddly, dirty, frustrating job. main problems are the tensioner and getting the crank pulley off. Not beyond the capabilities of an enthusiastic amateur with decent tools. I paid a garage ?120 to do mine.

Def a garage job if it goes tits up afterwards you will cry :( Make sure you get the belt from Toyota, the will need chassis, model, poss eng code, fitment time for a 4WS ST183 model 2.5 hours labour, ICME time quoted, so if they bill you for 4 hours or something like that, tell them to go f**k themselves, a ST185 Turbo take 3.3 hours to change, unless you have a good knowledge or the cam locking tool, I'd recommend taking it to a garage. I did mine not so long ago and the belt is specific to that model think it was the tooth count on the belt. PS you should get a little sticker that you fill in when changed etc and date, fill it in and stick it somewhere in the engine bay, Toyota guarantee the belt for 1 year so if it snaps then you can get them to do a warranty repair :)))))

I went to a local Toyota dealer and they said that because my car is a jap import they won't even look at it. Bastards. Will they still give parts and which toyota garages can do this and other repairs? >

> I went to a local Toyota dealer and they said that because my car is a jap > import they won't even look at it. Bastards. What utter shite, the ferkin thing is almost the same as a UK spec Celica, whoa did you mention Toyota??? any local garage can do this repair for you, just get the belt from Toyota that's all, go to your local garage "one you can trust" and get them to fit it for you. I'd personally make a complaint to Toyota UK about the service the authorised Toyota outlet ain't giving you, could you imagine if BMW started doing that! someones arse needs kicking at Toyota BIG TIME, ring again and ask to speak to the service manager. I deal with Toyota's all the time imports and UK spec and never have a problem with them except having to wait a few days 3-14 depending on the parts, one service guy to the next can give you different speel, maybe the guy you got had pissed the bed last night and he was just on one, who knows.

Hi - I've been reading your problems with getting import parts. The response from garages seems to vary a lot - also the prices. I needed a new fuse, one garage in London quoted me over ?12. I took the old fuse to a local Mitsubishi garage and they just matched it up and charged me ?1. Had a similar experience with drive belts.   Does anyone have any info on shock absorbers? - I have a 1991 ST183 convertible.  The local ATS exhaust place don't have any matching part codes for this

st183 convertible uses standard shocks, you can buy inserts and have then fitted - kyb's & koni's can deffo be used.

What standard? The exhaust place had 83-89 ST182 or 89 onwards ST185 (ex ABS) - they are different lengths - I want 1991

83-89 is an st162, st185's will fit but are heavier duty cos of the extra weight of the porky gt4 so if you reuse your springs may make the handling a bit strange. 

Paul,

 

Where are you based ??  I had mine done for me at a local garage (run by a mate) they fitted Koni adjustables all round (from an ST182 IIRC).  Front are MacFerson Strut type things, the rears are insearts which require the cutting and welding of your old struts.

 

HTH

 

Chipster