I took the Lexus in for its 90,000 mile service Wednesday. It was time, among other things, to replace the timing belt, and that's one maintenance item you don't put off. They had the car all day, and called late that afternoon to tell me that, while rotating the tires, they looked at the rear brakes and found the pads down to nothing. Fortunately, it hadn't worn to the point that the rotors were getting scored. I told them to go ahead and replace the pads. (91,700 miles with no brake repairs? I wasn't about to argue.) They had to order them, and got them in Thursday. I got the car back Thursday afternoon.
Right away, I noticed that the engine note was louder than usual. I didn't drive it any farther than the bank that evening, and we walked to dinner, so I didn't put but about 4 miles on it. I called the mechanic Friday morning, and they said to bring it in after lunch. I drove it back to the shop in Truman, about 15 miles away. On the way there, i got a CHECK ENGINE light. It turns out that was a very good thing. When they hooked their diagnostic computer up, they saw that the camshaft sensor and the crankshaft sensor were not correctly timed. The verdict: The timing belt is off by a tooth.
I'm not going to drive the car this weekend, and will take it back to Truman Monday morning. This time, though, I'm going to hang onto