If you ever have a 99 Camry that has a water pump go out, run, cry, get the hell out of there. I've never seen anything that hard to replace in my whole life, but I did it and knock on wood it's still working.
John
Another thing about this water pump thing. It went out two blocks from my house, and within 2 blocks it was making the worst sound you've ever heard, by the time I got it into the drive way, it was blowing water out the weep hole and all around the pulley. When I got the timing covers off it, there was ground metal and ball bearings all over the inside around the timing gears and parts. I was so lucky in that the timing belt didn't slip and knock the car out of time. I easily removed the timing belt tensioner pulley and took the pump out without touching anything. I put it all back together and re-tensioned the belt without moving any of the gears. I started right up in time, but there was not enough water in the system to let the thermostat open so I couldn't get it to take much water. I replaced the thermostat and it still over heated. Finally the thermostat opened up and I was able to fill it up with water. Have ran it 300 plus miles since Sunday and it is still staying cool and running smoothly.
The Chilton book I bought to help me with the pump change was pretty worthless. Tells you what you need to remove, but doesn't mention how much other stuff is between you and what it tells you to remove. I did use the book to trace the route of the belt, but I really don't think that much of is was worth the $17.00 I paid for the book.
If you water pump goes out, I'll be the first one to give you my condolences, and to tell you how sorry I am that it happened.
John
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Good for you to tackle a pretty nasty job, so I have heard. I was lucky - a friend at a local dealership was able to give me a very good price for a new timing belt & water pump (plus all oil seals) at 95K. I smile when I look at the shiny new water pump housing, and am glad I didn't have to endure what you did. Congrats!
How long did it take you from start to finish? Did you pop in a new timimg belt or was the one you had already pretty new?
Those books are pretty worthless. They give you the basics and the rest you have to figure out on your own during strip-down.
The HAYNES manuals are much better. Most of the time they have good photos.
To Clay and Ken,
Yes the Haynes is a better book, but unfortunatly the only one I could find in a pinch was the Chilton. It is pretty worthless.
I replaced the pump and seals around it as well as the thermostat. The timing belt looked better than the pictures in the book, so I decided to keep it. I'll probably be sorry later down the road for not replacing it, but it would have cost more than the water pump itself if I'd replaced it also.
I started to work on it at 9:00 am on Sunday morning and finished at 7pm, but there were several stops and trips to the parts house to get tools and things I needed.
I tell ya though the whole thing would have went real fast if I'd had the tools I needed from the very start. I had all the right size wrenches and sockets, but the bolts holding the timing cover on were the hardes and longes to remove. There was just no room in there to turn the bolts very far so each one of them had to be inched out a couple of clicks at a time. Some of them took for ever. All I could think about is the wrenches I've seen on infomercials that have the handle on the end of the rachet so you can put the rachet down into a tight space and turn the handle and remove the bolt without having to ratchet back and fourth. Even a pneumatic would have saved a lot of time.
John
Hi John,
Thanks for the info - sounds like a 3-4 hour job if you had what you needed from the start. I would be worried about getting the timing marks off, but I guess as long as you're careful, you're cool. I'll bet you're glad you won't have to do that job again for a while! Put it this way... if there is a next time, think how prepared you'll be! :-)
I'm definitly on the look out for a specialized wrench to get in the tight spots and work without turing. That is the one preparation I will start with first.
John
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Some
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check "Gearwrench" the original ratcheting combination wrenches
I found what I would recommend to anyone and will get one myself it's called a squeeze wrench. They range in price from 9.99 to 19.99 as seen on TV. I don't know how well they will hold up, but once you have the bolt broken lose with a real ratchet, then the tedious work can be shortened immensely by that sqeezewrench. All you have to do is a google search on squeezewrench and you'll have a jillion hits for it.
John
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