Water Pump Replacement

It should not be necessary to remove the engine mounts in order to access the engine coolant pump.

 

At 60,000 on my '06, the engine coolant leaked out and required that I be "flat-bedded" to the dealer. For a brief time the engine temperature got as high as 285F (according to my ScanGuage). The dealer was concerned about engine damage. Since I have the extented warranty (cost $999 back in '09), the replacement of the water pump and belts were completed covered. Since I have AAA, I did not have to pay for the 40+ miles to the dealer. The dealer said there was no engine damage. All told I had zero out of pocket expenses, just the agrevation and time lost.

 

Very interesting, what was the cause of the coolant leak?

 

Today I took my 2005 Prius to the dealer for the 75K service (although the car actually has a little over 80K miles on it). They said the water pump needs to be replaced because they spotted that it started to leak. They quoted a little over $400 for the replacement work. They also listed the belt potentially requiring replacement. This was about $100. They did not mention that this work would be covered by extended warranty -- I will ask about it tomorrow for sure. Thank you for sharing this info!

 

I did not ask but have the feeling that this part may have some design flaws. An alert did come up on the MFD indicating a temperatutre problem, which was confirmed by my ScanGuage. Another person had the comment about the drive belt. It should also be replaced as a result of antifreeze contamination. As I said, it didn't cost me a dime, thanks to the extended warranty.

 

I just spoke with the service manager. He confirmed that it was indeed the engine coolant water pump and potentially replacing serpentine belt. And, he also confirmed that my extended warranty will cover both. I'm dropping off my car for the work next week!

 

We are now up to four people who got their money's worth from an extended warranty. You 26,000 other warranty buyers will just have to be patient :_>

 

Oh, yes. I used the extended warranty on a TSB work before, so I'm definitely getting my money's worth, thanks to the discounted price on the warranty

 

I was just inspecting the serpentine belt and water pump on my '06 this morning and see quite a bit of crust around the weep hole. I'm thinking to replace the belt and pump. Has anyone done this job following the instructions written up in the Bentley manual? If so, how did it go? Any tips, caveats or other advice? As for parts, it looks like I will need to buy a water pump with gasket and a serpentine belt. Will I need anything else? Is Champion Toyota World the best place to order these parts? Thanks for the advice!!

 

Hey jreed,

How'd you fair on your water pump / serp belt replacement? Considering doing the same on mine. Was the Bentley manual helpful?

 

Thanks for the info, I changed the pump on my 2005 (128K miles) today.

1. remove engine under cover driver side (actually you don't need to completely remove it, just have enough access to drain the engine coolant).
2. unclip the plastic tube to the engine filter to get it out of the way
3. remove the idle pully assembly (the small pully above the water pulley)
4. to remove the bolts to the pulley, I use an old screw driver to prevent it from turning to remove the 3 bolts.

I purchased the parts from the dealer (ASIN pump with gasket and new belt). I think online is about $40 cheaper.

 

I found a tool similar to SST 09960-10010 that can be used for the job. Check it out at the link below:

OTC , 6613 Variable Pin Spanner Wrench

Mylar

 

Have an '04 with 154k miles on it, and had an engine rattle that caused me to bring the car in and pay my local dealer a $53 diag fee. They said the water pump bearing / shaft was bad and the belt was warn m/c of mis-aligned pulley. I never saw any water leaks, though it's possible.

I was then quoted about $600 from my local San Diego Dealer for replacement water pump, gasket ($125 parts, $300 labor) and belt ($35 parts, $140 labor). I then went to my local 76 shop and my friend Frank will do the job (hopefully) for $300 ($100 parts, $150 labor, $50 coolant and misc including coolant flush).

Thanks for a great thread!

-Joshua

 

First, don't flush, just do a drain/refill and it is best to stick with the Toyota SSL coolant. Care and a bit extra time needs to be taken to get all of the air out of the system. Second, there are two independent coolant loops so don't ignore the Inverter loop. Third, your dealer was double charging for the belt labor as the belt comes off while you are replacing the Engine water pump.

JeffD

 

Folks,
I just replaced my Coolant Return Pump (under the driver's headlight), the thermostat, water pump, belt and belt idler wheel. I have 140,000 miles on my 07.
My water pump had a good amount of crust and the coolant return pump was making the tell-tale noise.
The dealer had noticed this at 110,000 miles, when I got the Inverter Pump replaced during the recall. They had to change coolant in the inverter loop at that time.

I used Alldatadiy.com for the online service manual. It's a subscription site, about $20/yr. If there's a better one, ;et me know.
I did all three of these elements because the first step in all of them is to remove the under covers LH/RH. You really end up removing most of the covers under the front of the car to get access to everything you need to.

The instructions are great and it was pretty easy to do everything. You don't need the SST for the water pump, you can just stick a 3/8 extension in one of the holes to hold the pulley until you remove the bolts. Very little torque on these small bolts and nuts.
I got my Toyota Only Parts at Toyotaparts4less.com. The Return Pump was $127 and I got a bunch of the plastic push in clip/rivets to put the plastic panels back on.
I got the water pump, pulley, belt and thermostat at Advanced Auto Parts. The water pump was $39.99 and came with a gasket. Thermostat needs the rubber ring.
The most expensive part was the coolant, it's $30/gallon at the dealer and it really takes about 2 gallons to truely refill the system. Get a second bleeder for the radiator, it's eaasy to strip the one that's there.

Everyone here is right, it takes a long time to refill the system and get all the air out. I had to drain the expansion tank and all the other components, so it was a real full fill-up from scratch, but well worth it for the peace of mind.

The Thermostat was a real pain in the A.... because of the clearance under that part of the engine.

I saved myself $2000 in dealer rip off service. I also replaced my battery in the back and drained and refilled the trans fluid.

Toyota can keep their $120/hr service rates.

This little Prius drives 30k/yr and it's running prefect.

 

As I said above, if you're gonna go to the trouble of taking the under covers off, you might as well do all the services you would do while those are off.

 

According to the dealer in Gallatin, Tennessee, who noticed a leak while replacing a steering shaft under a recall, at 184k miles. The cost, including some extra parts, such as the belt, is $355 plus tax. Seems fair.

 

Interesting. This is the first ever service (water pump) on my 2006 Prius, with over 184,000 miles. I hear many complaining... Guess you guys never owned cars in the 60's.

 

Just had my main engine water pump replaced on my 2005 prius with 56k miles. Dealer found it leaking when they were doing the most recent steering shaft recall. Dealer quoted me $458 for new pump (parts & labor).

I took it to my local shop where they replaced the pump, coolant, serpentine belt (they said it was glazed?), rotated the tires, changed the oil and oil filter, and did a full inspection for $390.