Preventive maintenance: Changing cambelt video, Toyota Starlet, 4E-FE

Video of me changing cambelt in my car.

Date of replacement: 2015-07-20

I did not change the tensioner pulley and the idle-pulley, the condition were fine. Felt perfect in their bearings and the car has only done 76090 km, so I only changed the belt. If the bearing is going bad you will here them also. Hey this is Toyota quality, they will last atlest double the miles before they need replacement.

Part 1
Part 2


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[EDIT 2019-01-22]
Always glad when I get some emails from people pleased with the videos and that it helped them out.

----------- Mail -------------
Johnny from Australia

"I'm writing to you from Australia after watching your videos and reading your steps for changing the timing belt on a Toyota starlet 1997. Same car as me!

Thanks to you, I successfully replaced the belt, tensioner, idler (and water pump while I was in there...)

It was really helpful to watch how you did it. Thanks so much!"

"I've attached more of the water pump and tensioner/idler if you want to post those too. I only drive the car maybe 200km in a whole week, but so far I have had it for 12 years and only changed the oil regularly. I did have to replace the CV joints once (both) as they were leaky, but that's it! Great car."


Here's some photos.


--------------- Thank you Johnny for your supportive email and pictures! :-) -----------

Cambelt for the Starlet, old vs new

Last week I ordered a new Cambelt for the Starlet. I decided to go for the Gates Powergrip. I´ve google some on it and not found any negative and Gates is very common. The belt looks good

This is the original Toyota Starlet 4E-FE cam belt. It didn´t look old, it felt pretty fresh. I guess it would have lasted a bit longer. However 18 years old, it was time to replace!

This is the new Gates Powergrip belt, that I bought from skruvat.se, cost med 280 SEK plus shipping 29 SEK. about 36 USD.

The Gates model is 5358XS for the 4E-FE, Toyota Corolla, Starlet 1,3, Corsa, Tercel 1.3, Cynos 1.3

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Timing belt removal, on Toyota Starlet EP91

Disclaimer!
This is not recommended for beginners! Don´t do it if you don´t have the knowledge, OK?! DON'T BLAIM ME if you fail. Doing it wrong can damage your engine.. In this post I just tell you what I did OK?

Enough of disclaimer, everyone has to take their own responsible for their life and the choices they do..

Ok, lets get started!

First! Jack up the car, Remove front right wheel.

Then remove splashguard under the car, the right one, 4 bolts on my car and clip holding it together with the left splash guard.

I suggest you start with the crankshaft pulley, if you can get that one off is the main question. This how I did it.

Remove the 19 mm crank pulley bolt.

If you are mad enough to try the startengine method....

Remove the 15A EFI fuse before cranking, I missed this so the engine started. But fortunatly I stopped it before anything bad happend...Phew. Dont miss this.. Be careful and dont do it if you dont know how. Se pictures down below for how I did it.

Alternator Belt /  Drive belt. 
Loosen Pivot bolt and then loosen adjusting bolt and move the alternator so you can slide /get the alternator/ drive belt of.

Picture from: http://www.toyotagtturbo.com/forums/showthread.php?94745-how-to-change-fan-belt-on-starlet-na

Suggest you mark up the adjusting bolt and feel the tension of the belt so you can get it back the same when finished.

This tool can help remove crankshaft pulley. Credit to Peter Finn! Is called Takjärn in Sweden.

27.45 in the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36VfojkWhm8

Date of the job, 2015-07-20, 76069 km, and 18 year old car, time to change the belt. Every 6 year or 90000 km whichever comes first.

After removing the wheel and splash-guard: First thing, loosen this 19 mm bolt. My first approach was too try to hold the crankshaft pulley with M8 screws and a bar, but had a hard time drilling trough the bar.. so...

I decided to go with the start-engine and turn the ignition key a short moment method. It felt like high risk but I did try it and was successful. I put the socket wrench against the frame, as you can see in the picture.

Next I loosen the Alternator Pivot bolt and the adjuster bolt so I could remove the drivebelt.

Got the crankshaft pulley of easy, thanks for that! It wasn´t stuck. YES! This was the biggest challenge to get of, and it went like a breeze.

4E-FE engine. Here you have the crankshaft pulley and drivebelt removed. Time to remove the two plastic cover.

Here I have removed the upper cover. 4 screw of 10 mm bolts if I remember correctly.

The lower cover had 3 bolts, 10 mm socket wrench. Here it just coming of.

Toyota Starlet, 4efe: Now the cambelt is fully visible.

Checking out the alignment of the original belt.

View, from the bottom of the engine. Crankshaft teeth at the lowest point.

Tried to but the crankshaft pulley back so I could rotate the engine, clockwise. But was to heave, had to put the wheel back on and put the gear in 4th gear, then It was pretty easy to turn the engine around by hand.

Tensioner pulley with spring, I put some marks here, thought it might be useful, but really wasn't. This one has to be moved. To get the cam belt of, the tensioner wheel has to be moved as far left as possible. The spring will be longer. And then tighten the bolt, (12 mm)

Clean everything that was dirty, here the Idle pulley.

Checking TDC, top dead center. on the cam. The 4E and the little hole must align. So must also the crankshaft teeth / cogwheel.

I decided to go for a Gates Powergrip cam belt.

Checking that the crankshaft mart is where it should be according to TDC. Last picture before changing the belt.

I got the belt of, bit by bit. And then check the tensioner bearing and idle pulley bearing. Felt good and solid. Don´t have to change them.

Here the new belt has been mounted. Took a while to get the new cam belt on, it was pretty tight even though I´ve moved the tensioner pulley. But finally got it on and then turn the camshaft cogwheel 2 whole turns and checked if the marks lined up as they should. When I was sure they were correctly installed I tried starting the engine and it the sound was OK. YES! I then re-assembled everything in reverse order.

Finally I put this little sticker that was in the Gates cardbord case. Noting the km and date so that next owner has a clue of the status of the cam belt. The least I could do..

Another guide of how to do it:
http://www.ukstarletowners.com/topic/3169-how-to-change-a-cambelt-ep91

Tercel video, same principle as the Toyota Starlet, even though not the same engine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bf93v-d3Kdc

I´ve done a video, 2 part series, check it out!

Part1 /2

Part 2/2


The car is now running fine and everything is like it should! YES!

Bye! :-)

Possibly the most reliable engine ever

Possibly the most reliable engine ever.. The Toyota Starlet 4E-FE. :-)

Just found these comments. Apperently we might watch our wheel bearings.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiIu-X1rvJs

Ordering Cambelt and Oilfilter for the Toyota Starlet 4E-FE

Time to order some replacement parts.
First: Service interval, replacing fluids and so on.

From Toyota Corolla E11 manual

From Corolla E11 manual, same engine 4efe as in Starlet.

Oilfilters. Bosch is probably best but its a bit expensive and I think this will do..

From Biltema, I just dont want there logo so....

I ordered it from skruvat.se instead.

Cambelt Gates 5358XS

Comparing partnumber from Toyota original.

Gates belt seem good enough, know many who has them, and hasnt complain.

Picture of Starlet Oil Filter, I think this is for the Turbo

My order..  Shipping only 29 kr, not much.

If I would have bought the belt from the firm Mekonomen it would have cost about 500 SEK. And they didn't have it in there shop so I ordered online instead..


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[EDIT 2018-04-24]
Just bought another oil filter for the Starlet ..

I decided to go for a one with anti-drain-valve, also known as non return valve (Backspärrventil / Backventil in Swedish). This keeps the oil in the oilchannels when the Engine is turned off, so there should be more oil availble when restarting the Engine. = Less friction when starting = better.

This is the one I bought from Skruvat.se:
WIX WL7131

Charging the car battery with a Ctek

The battery in my car is going bad slowly. I use a CTEK charger to amp up the power in the battery from time to time..

The Biltema lead battery is going sour on me. When the car not have on the road for a couple of days, the start engine is slow in the beginning.

I use this CTEK Charger M100 and are happy with it.

The battery size is Biltema 44 A. LxBxH = 207,5x175x200 mm  and there seem to room for a bigger battery, I don't know what the original one is for a Toyota Starlet. Anyone know?

This M100 charger has an output of 7A so it charges a battery in a say 5-6 hours depending on how low the charge of the battery is. Its for lead batteries.

The charger adapts and has different kind of "steps". Here the battery is ready. Green light.

A nice feature of the CTEK is that you can change contacts if you want. Different sort can be bought.

Toyota Starlet goes 600.000 km / 372822miles

Found this Youtube video from Iraklis Pouaro of a Toyota Starlet Ep91 turning 600.000 km on its odometer, This trustworthy car just will run and run.

The description of the video says:

"My toyota starlet ep 91 has now 600.000 km without having a problem at all of its life"

600.000 km, that's equal to 372822 miles

Many miles on a Toyota Starlet Ep91. One of the most reliable cars ever made? (overall that it)
Reliability Rating = HIGH!



Does your Toyota Starlet have high mileage? Please comment if you think its been reliable. :-)

Mine sure has.