Found out from my mechanic that I might have a water pump going bad and the coolant leak may be due to that. I am getting quite anxiuos to how much it is going to cost. Is this a major fix? Please let me know anything helpful.
Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you Winston
The parts should be under $50, if a trained pro is doing the job he COULD have it done in an hour. It took me about that long on my 305 Blazer and it's basically the same s*it. You can tackle this job in your drive way with a std ratchet and sockets on the weekend if you wanted to save some dough and learn a little about how it works.
I'm not sure on the V6 cars, but when I had a '95 Z28 with an LT1, when the water pump went, it also (supposedly) killed the "optispark" ignition system. Total repairs including labor (at a dealer) was something like $300-400 for the water pump and $700 for the optispark. It's been a while but the total repair at dealer prices was definitely more than $1k. Prettty sure I got hosed.
According to my labor estimating guide, a 1996 V6 Camaro calls for 1.8 hours. That for the pump removal. It lists 1.0 hours time to remove & replace the belt. So that's 2.8 hours book time. Figure @ 60 per hour, $168 labor plus parts.
You may find higher or lower labor costs,depending on what area you are in. A budget water pump, I have seen for around $40 (with out shop discount). Most pumps include gaskets needed. Although cheep ones.
$208 for a water pump sounds high. Yet unless you do it your self, and use high quality parts, it's not that bad.
Personally I would use an A/C delco brand pump. As I find the cheaper ones do not last as long. Charles
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