Hi, I have about 95000 miles on a 1993 Nissan Maxima, timing belt was replaced at 61000 miles. The water pump has started to leak, local dealer quoted me a price of $495 to fix (just for pump and hoses) I'm wondering how difficult this job is from those of you that may have done this yourself. I did a quick search for parts on the net and for pump, upper and lower hoses was about $100. I'm wondering if I should bite the bullet and change the timing belt while I am replacing the water pump, since that should be done at about
120k. I would think a shop would do that for cost of the belt if they had to replace the pump anyway (the dealer above did not offer that as an option, but I did'nt ask either as I was still trying to recover from the initial sticker shock of the quote). Anyway, the price quoted from the dealer seemed high to me but since I have never done that on this car, not sure how "easy" it is. Labor cost is probably high for that job since I imagine a lot of other things have to be removed to get at the water pump. So, any advice from any of you folks that have been faced with repair would be greatly appreciated.P.S. I'm moderately capable at fixing things like hoses, etc.. but a timing belt is not something I would feel comfortable doing (and have never done anything quite that extensive). I've changed water pumps on other vehicles but they seemed easier to get at than this one seems to be.
Thanks, Bob T.