Preemptive timing chain replacement at 135K miles?

No, no reason too. At 301,000 miles the chain, guides, and tensioner were tight.
No sign of wear at all and the chain was tight on the sprockets and no sign of wear
on the sprockets.

How many miles do you have on it now?

 

135k.

better get on EGR cleaning; that’s hands-down your best preemptive measure. Sooner than later. Later you’ll likely have that timing chain in your hands, in the process of head gasket replacement.

Links relevant to both processes in my signature, and last link is the full engine section of Repair Manual. On a phone turn it landscape to see signatures.

 

Yes chains and guides should last well well well well beyond 135K even with poor oil changes unless your oil changes are so bad the oil's coming out in clumps and clogging tensioners and other things highly unlikely. That would be kind of pissing money away if you will If you're going to wind up doing this you're going to wind up doing this along with the head gasket and possibly a cam phaser and all that at one time and it should be around 150 to 210,000 somewhere in that spread

 

Hopefully not. I bought a new one to put on when I did my head gasket at 230k but it was extremely difficult to install by myself and I didn't want to screw up my timing by messing with the crankshaft so I ended up just putting the old one back on as it was just a bit longer and fit perfect. Tensioner still only seemed like it came out 1/3 of the way when I released it.

Has anyone ever even broke a timing chain on one of these cars?

 

I've had a timing chain break and other Toyotas but not the single row type that's in the 2ZZ but after what I've seen online with quality control and the way things are built today I'm getting ready to think these chains will stretch to the usable limit like I say about 150 K It looks like it I've seen some Fords that have stretched out and 42,000 mi videos of it online Is this rare I really don't think so in some of these forwards and things usually timing chains are made to last a long time versus timing belts but hey on a non-interference engine a timing belt 45 minute change and you're good to go

 

I'm going to hijack this thread, since the OP has already received his answer.

I've been in this forum for a long time and there's one question I've never seen answered about EGR cleaning. Would an average Toyota dealership undertake that or is it something that most wouldn't touch and its an independent or DIY thing?.

And if you don't DIY, what $$$ cost would you predict?

 

I don't think they'll know what you're talking about personally All they will tell you is that those are replaceable parts and you should buy new ones clean what No we don't have a cleaning department. But then again for creative service writer with a crew of people with not a lot to do could come up with a $700 $800 job out of that pretty easily.

 

AFAIK they’ll only replace parts, and that’s roughly a grand USD, before they start tallying the labour. There is a warranty extension, but for various reasons I’d describe it as useless.

 

But why hijack a thread about timing chain replacement for that question?

 

It's not true, and NO!
This would be the automotive equivalent of getting a 'preemptive heart replacement' at age 50.
Not only will it cost you well over a thousand dollars that you do not need to spend, if the idiots that suggested this "maintenance" actually DO THE WORK then there is a non trivial chance that they will screw up the replacement and that you will have complications that arise from this highly invasive and unnecessary procedure.
They're trying to rob you.

I don't think so.
First of all if your G3 has been DEALER maintained, and they're the same crooks that suggested a pre-emptive timing CHIAN replacement then they probably use a 10,000 mile oil change interval (UNWISE in a 2010) and your dirtier oil and low tension rings are building up blockages in your EGR loop.
SO...in keeping with the medical analogy, your car NOW HAS a partially clogged LAD (Widowmaker) that will only get worse over time.

The good news is that cars are a little bit like politicians.
It's not the YEARS that hurt their agility as much as it is the MILEAGE.

Your car is at 100K.
If it REALLY WERE "well maintained" then you're good to go for 225K with no major issues.

Find somebody more competent and honest to work on your car.
Change to 5k oil changes and CHECK IT as often as the MAINTENANCE GUIDE says to.
Get the EGR loop cleaned by a competent mechanic.
Even a dealership EGR COOLER replacement at $2k would be money much better spent than some idiotic timing chain (or timing chain cover) replacement.

 

Carbon build up in the 3rd Gen EGR system, including intake manifold, can progress just fine, even with short oil change interval and no engine oil consumption.

 

Yep.
Vegans get heart attacks too.

 

And if you're doing all that maintenance and all that checking and all that bringing it back and forth to folks then cost of ownership goes up exponentially unless one can do that for a lot of that themselves obviously and then there's the conjecture and all of the nonsense of what individuals think which plays a lot in your car maintenance because you're taking it to somebody for this so what they believe is what you're getting that can be tricky on its own just to be clear things aren't built as heavy duty as they were because we are in a throwaway society wider faster wearing is better We can't have people sitting around here not buying things because we're making them is the mentality of manufacturers That's why your refrigerator today last less than 7 years That's made to be that way All my refrigerators until 18 years ago lasted 25 years pretty much all of them oh well we can't have that anymore.

 

A preventative repair with updated piston and rings along with the revised intake, egr valve, ecu flash and head gasket might cover Toyota’s attempts to remedy gen3 engines.

But the cost would be prohibitive for the value gained and you still would not have the significant cylinder thermal management and egr revisions of a gen4 engine.