My ford escort turbo diesel's water pump needs replacing. I'm going to ring up some garages on monday - but how many hours labour am I looking at here? Obviously they'll have to top up the system with coolant too. Whant to be prepared for the quotes.
The cambelt was changed last year, which is a sod cos they could have done that too.
paddle
3 hours labour plus parts belt kit 100 quid pump 50 quid coolant 20 quid
so a little garage about 300 quid all in for a proper job
mrcheerful
Or an extra 50 quid for the pump, and a nominal amount (tenner?) for the extra labour involved in removing old pump + fitting new one had the garage recommended to replace it along with the belt when he had that done.
Hindsight, eh?
The motto being that wherever possible DIY.. for my 1.7 diesel Astra (shopping around on the net) it amounted to a Sealey DTI gauge with slide plate.. an 'original' GM timing belt and rocker cover gasket.. a water pump plus pully idler from Autovaux, total cost circa £80, at least safe in the knowledge that every vulnerable item had been replaced.
Is that something that should be done as a matter of course?
most cars nowadays are a pain to change the water pump, so it is quite common to replace it with the cambelt change.
mrcheerful
Depends who you ask. A lot of garage will say they've checked the water pump and found it to be absolutely fine, but on anything with a few miles on (100k or more) you never know when the bearings might pack up, and if it's driven by the cambelt, it's effectively yet another pulley that could potentially chew up the cambelt if it seized. Only real way to *properly* give any sort of guarantee on a new cambelt is to replace everything it drives as well. Costs a bit more, but much better in the peace of mind stakes in the long term.
Yup, I had it done on the MX-5 although the pumps aren't a known weak point. It sits behind the cambelt.
Thanks to all those who replied. I took it to the garage, they changed the waterpump, and also the fan belt as it was wrecked, and of course filled it up with coolant. Parts and 3hrs, inc vat, =A3166. I thought that was quite reasonable.
They said the anti-freeze was ethylene glycol, what other types are there?
I assume, when it eventually needs topping up, I will be able to use
*any anti-freeze as long as it says ethylene glycol* on the bottle? This is right isn't it? There just seems to be so many warnings about anti freeze types and not mixing x with y, that I've lost myself.TIA :)
paddle
Not sure exactly what the chemical names are for the other types, but AFAIK there's one type that's green/blue and another that's glow-in-the-dark orange or pink. Best way to be sure the right stuff is in stock, would be go to a main dealer's parts department. Halfords can be useless for stuff like this - I once wanted PAS fluid, and instead of saying which of the two different types were mineral or synthetic, it just said whether they suited Ford or fecking Vauxhall.
They are you know, I've done a belt on an MX-5 because of a water pump seizure. Seemed rather common when I googled.
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