engine coolant system prb

Hi Gurus,

My 96 camry LE,v4 has 57k mi on it.

Recently, I had coolant leak and engine malfunction indicator went ON. I took it to the aaa dealer and they inspected and said, radiator is leaky and replaced the radiator with KOYO, thermostat & gasket and totally charged me around 500 bucks- they said the coolant is very rusty...

and the malfunction ind did NOT turn off after running for 25-30 miles- so they ran the computer scan and told, something is wrong with engine coolant system - we have to check water pump - coz just now radiator is fixed and hence radiator cant be the problem...and also told me that since they have to remove timing belts to get at water pump they might as well change the timing belts ....

so they told the water impeller blades are bad, replaced the water pump, timing belts and totally cost me around 700 bucks....

like to know - whether there is something wrong here ? did i get a raw deal ? -

Thanks Arv

Reply to
Arvind
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Unfortunately, you have been the victim of "charge every thing by the book, while we try and fix soemthing we aren't all that competant in doing* type servicers.

They should have been able to check the water-pump pressure while they were sussing out the engine-light alarm,....but they didn't, instead making you come back for "part II".

The rad was leaky so they had to replace it plus the thermo,...but a total of $500 seems too high unless the rad cost around $300. There are re-cores for less than that and they should have offered you the alternative in that case.

Any half decent servicing place would have reduced their full-rippoff-price as an act of good faith, since they made you come back again over the alarm light which they missed or ignored.

Jason

Reply to
Jason James

Reply to
Car Guy

RUN ... don't walk FROM these incompetents!!

Reply to
Philip®

Hi,

Recently I got replaced Radiator, Timing Belt and Water Pump for my 94' camry with AAA approved shop. Before taking to them, I enquired about 6 to 7 places..

For Radiator Replacement it costed me $320 (Radiator: $153.00 + Coolant: $11.00) and remaining Labor. For Timing Belt and Water Pump, they charged $300 (Timing Belt: $235 and WaterPump: $65)..

I feel, its adifference of $50 to $70. And this difference is very common.

And also you could feel better if the you are just due for Timing Belt change in 8 to 10K miles or 1 year. Timing Belt failures at high speeds might damage engine..

-Rama

Reply to
Ramakrishna Devisetti

Hi,

Recently I got replaced Radiator, Timing Belt and Water Pump for my 94' camry with AAA approved shop. Before taking to them, I enquired about 6 to 7 places..

For Radiator Replacement it costed me $320 (Radiator: $153.00 + Coolant: $11.00) and remaining Labor. For Timing Belt and Water Pump, they charged $300 (Timing Belt: $235 and WaterPump: $65)..

I feel, its adifference of $50 to $70. And this difference is very common.

And also you could feel better if the you are just due for Timing Belt change in 8 to 10K miles or 1 year. Timing Belt failures at high speeds might damage engine..

-Rama

Reply to
Ramakrishna Devisetti

Your engine would be be quite safe in that event.

Jason

Reply to
Jason James

well if they say the radiator was 'leaky', then you must have askeh to see the leak, right?

you would have had to replace the radiator irrespective the fact it may/may not be causing your initial problem.

the thermostat and gasket i am not sure if it was required, but it was probably a good idea.

so the point is... even if they did not diagnose the faulty water pump the first time, they still found you had another problem with something else, and you replaced it. the only benefit to diagnosing it correctly would have been to save you - your personal time, and perhaps some labour charges, but nothing extremely significant.

Reply to
Lance

It sounds to me like the problem was lack of maintenence in the cooling system. If the coolant had been changed at the proper intervals with the proper Toyota coolant it would be a clear red colour, no rust. You would not have had a problem. Lack of proper maintenance is costly as you have discovered. John

Reply to
John

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