Gen 3 vs Gen 4 water pump replacement

There are two water pumps, one for the engine on the passengers side and the other for the inverter and transaxle on the drivers side.

I will assume you are talking about the engine water pump. Your 2017 v wagon is gen3 and you can get it off pretty easily. Some do it from the top only although you have to feel for the bottom and back bolts to do it.

Don’t use anything except oem Toyota water pumps, the aftermarket and counterfeit units fail quickly.

Aftermarket (maybe Aisin)



Online Toyota dealer

 

the v was gen3 through 2017 in the US and through 2021 elsewhere.

I would change the thermostat or at least get the gasket.

I would make sure Napa gave you a 2017 Prius v part and not a 2017 Prius hatchback part.

 

What were the reasons for replacing the pump?

 

As other posters have mentioned, the v wagon remains a gen 3 Prius even in the years when the Prius liftback is gen 4. So you should not have a difficult replacement in your v wagon.

For other readers, yes, the gen 4 liftback did make access harder for the pump. "Drop the engine" was indeed the original procedure suggested in the repair manual, but it turns out a little creativity with engine mounts and a jack is all that's really needed. PriusChat member 3prongpaul figured that out, and the Toyota repair manual was later updated. (Whether Toyota figured that out independently or 3prongpaul used their repair manual comment form, I don't know.) More at this post.

 

11 book hours at Toyota to replace a Gen 4 2ZR water pump. That's likely dropping the engine and whatnot..but mechanics know a few short cuts to work only about 4 hours or less and get the full 11 hrs. There's less than an inch between the fender well and the pump housing inside the Gen 4 engine bay, versus several inches in a Gen 3.

 

Interesting ... it was @Elektroingenieur who reported that the Repair Manual procedure had been changed from the earlier version with engine removal to a simpler procedure, and reported in the same post that:

"11 book hours" sounds even worse than what the Flat Rate Manual said before the update.

 

Doesn’t Toyota also propose to remove engine/transaxle for Gen 3 timing chain cover reseal. Sometimes their mechanical engineers, technical writers and so on, seem to have a tenuous grasp at best, on practicality.

 

Keep in mind most dealers pay their mechanics by book hours regardless of how fast they actually do the job. So an efficient mechanic can do several 8 hour jobs in one day.

Toyota pays warranty labor based on book hours as well but at a reduced rate.

 

Honestly, if you've got a spacious well-lighted service bay, lift, engine stand, and all the needed tools lined up in order, it's not unlikely you'll do a better job resealing the timing cover, with fewer oopses and do-overs, by pulling the engine than you would by trying to finagle it into place in the engine bay.

The engine-pulling part is more of a PITA for those of us who have to first move the lawnmower and last year's birdfeeders out of the way and rent some tools from Autozone. Or get notes from landlords or HOAs about pulling an engine on the premises.

 

No one is replacing a G4 water pump in 1.3 hours, either from 11 or 7 book hours on their own time flying through the job.

 

Maybe "is the Toyota Flat Rate Manual realistic or not?" is its own question.

For all I know, both the 7 and the 1.3 hour figures could be weirdly lowballed, but they still suggest the revision that got rid of R&Ring the engine cut a bunch of time off the job.

 

It's not realistic, Toyota just wants to steal people's money. (And this bloated flag hour system is designed to make a sloppy mechanic).

 

I guess someone never thought of reading the repair manual. Oh well.
There is so much advice to read about here and youtubes to watch, why bother with that old hat.

 

IIRC one of the gems in the 4th Gen Repair Manual is to remove engine/transaxle assembly, in order to remove water pump?

 

The complicating factor is that sometimes people will sign in for the Repair Manual and make PDFs that later circulate forever and people look at those forever because it's easier than signing in to look at the online edition, which gets ongoing updates.

There was indeed a time when the gen 4 Repair Manual said to remove the engine/transaxle assembly to change the water pump.

That's not what the Repair Manual currently says, but that doesn't help anybody who might be referring to some PDF made from an older version.

Whether the Flat Rate Manual figure of 7 hours or of 1.3 hours will be closer to what you experience is going to have a lot to do with which version of the Repair Manual instructions you happen to be following.

 

Aftermarket parts seller websites (wholesale only) has labor rate catalog icons attached to their parts catalog (similar to ALLDATA) and theirs also shows 11 hours for Gen 4 wp...fwiw. Good thing they last longer in general than Gen 3.