kleecker

I'm going to have someone replace at least the serpentine belt. His rates are quite reasonable, compared to OEM. I have 110k miles on an '08. I've had quite a few Toyotas (to approx 200k miles) and never once had to replace a water pump.

I'm guessing that there must be a good deal of duplication in work (replace belt vs. replace pump) but is it THAT much? You only need to loosen the belt when removing the water pump, correct? What other PIA things need to be done to remove the water pump?

How many hours should it take a reasonably skilled mechanic to replace the belt and pump at the same time? How many hours to replace just separately?

thanks

JDMSUV

Book time says its close to 3 hrs for water pump replacement. It says to remove the motor mount but you can snake the water pump through without removing the mount. Belt is 0.5 hr replacement.

I would say 1 hr for the belt/water pump and 10 or 15 minutes for replacing just the belt.

kleecker

Then removing the water pump later down the road (as opposed to with the belt) only adds, say, 30 minutes give or take, to take care of the belt, I don't see the strong arguments for replacing both at once....... I see the argument, but if 30 mins is the only duplicated labor I'll run it until the pump starts to fail, which I assume starts out slowly.

But, the labor of one hour seems extremely low..Anyone else have their's done by a mechanic?

Are the water pumps known to fail prematurely (less than 150k)?

JDMSUV

Ive seen Toyota water pumps start to leak as early as 60-80K miles

Gti5notrkt

Labor is the biggest cost, water pumps are relatively cheap.