Timing belt warning light

I have just noticed, hidden under a bit of black tape on my dashboard panel (bottom right), the light for T.BELT is permanently on. I'm pretty confident that the belt was changed in late 2013 when imported - the previous owner who bought it from the importer was told it had been done then, and my mechanic found a sticker on the engine to say it had been done. So, is it a case of something that needed to be reset or is this warning light detecting some kind of problem.

The belt needs to be replaced every 50,000 miles and/or 5 years whichever comes first, having done a search on the forum recently myself (mine had a belt done at 98,000 and I've now done 151,000 and it's been 5 years I discovered to my horror). Sorry to say it well be that you're due a new belt /

not yet 5 years and definitely not 50K miles so I don't think its that

I had a search for other Toyota's and came up with this:
https://www.landcruiserclub.net/community/threads/timing-belt-light-reset.131574/

Maybe worth a look. The trick is to find a similar aged Toyota that's popular

2018-2013 = 5. Not sure what month it was done but you could be on the cusp of another change?
Interesting that there was tape over the light so it so it could well be it was never re-set after the last change? See GPW's link.

There are two places for the timing belt light reset point. One - like on my van is on the back of the instrument panel -where you swap a screw from one hole to another - it is well marked so there is no mistake as to what it is. The other place is under the dash near the drivers knees where you also swap the screw from one point to another. If you take out the dash just remember there is a hidden screw up in the air vent. on the forum here I think someone has posted pics of the screw positions.

If you do a search on timing belt reset you will find more posts

Thanks all for these very helpful posts. Dead cunning these Toyota designers!

I'm going to pull my instrument panel soon to fit a couple of wires to allow me to dim the lamps inside, as I don't have that option fitted.

So I'll have a good look then and take some pics.

BTW as an aside: you can't fit green or red LEDs in the instrument cluster I discovered as various colours on the rev counter or speedo come out black (because coloured LEDs are very pure narrow-band colours) - it was designed for white or incandescent light only . I know this because I had a blown bulb and didn't think it through with the replacement LEDs. Now I have white ones in there but they are a bit bright.

Ok, so I got the instrument cluster/meter out again. This time it was to remove a wire to the reverse light warning bulb trcak that I'd added - to switch on the backup/reversing camera. It turns out you can buy camera leads with 'reverse trigger' wires in them, that you connect to the reversing lamp at the back to tell the radio to switch to camera mode. I can report that it works too .

Also my van didn't have an instrument/meter lamp dimmer either, and I'd fitted quite bright white LEDs in there, so I traced the meter illumination wires to the top two (green/grey dash + Gnd = white/black stripe) wires of the blue connector in the lower RHS of the cluster, so I wired in a 3-way plug to that so I can fit a pot to a spare blanking hole on the dash (I have 3 switch positions with blanks) connected to a regulator to dim the panel as I drive along.

So apart from these off topic stuff it meant I had the meter in my hand and had a look at the back. There is indeed a Timing belt note on the back with two holes and one screw, and the evidence that the screw was in the other hole so my belt has been changed at least once before - which fits with the mileage!



So you simply need to ease out the panel, switch the screw over and the lamp goes out until next time. All the meter connectors have big tabs and will gently jiggle out with patience, careful as you do it. You'll also need to take the cowling off above the steering to make space,

While it's out you can also delete the 'key left in' beep which I mention elsewhere, by cutting off the switch that does it (or just unbolt it from the back of the column). I unbolted it, then tested it (open-circuit = quiet) and cut it off later so now I need a bit of tape there to cover the hole to stop it getting dusty. Today I'd just cut it off.


I hope people find this useful .

Well the timing belt light is no longer on. I just passed 100,000 km and the light went out. My guess is it will come back on at 200,000 haha.

Timing belt was replaced late 2013 - almost 5 years and about 20,000 Km ago. I have heard different opinions on when it should be replaced again - in 5 years? In 10 years? after 50,000 km?

Andonic wrote:

Well the timing belt light is no longer on.  I just passed 100,000 km and the light went out.  My guess is it will come back on at 200,000 haha.

Timing belt was replaced late 2013 - almost 5 years and about 20,000 Km ago.  I have heard different opinions on when it should be replaced again - in 5 years?  In 10 years?  after 50,000 km?  

Under the passenger seat (under the carpet next to the engine bay toward the door) there may be a plate with the service intervals of various items for your van. If it's in Japanese use Google Translate on an Android phone to translate the image to english.