We just bought a '95 LE four wagon. The timing belt was done at 63k miles, but we see no receipt for water pump replacement. It has 108k miles on it now. If this is the original water pump, can we reasonably expect it to last until Spring, say another 5k miles?
============================= Recommended replacement interval for timing belts on your engine is
60,000 miles. If you have been using Toyota coolant and distilled water, the water pump should be fine until 120,000 miles. Generally with a Toyota water pump, the failure mode will begin with weeping at the seal so you would have advance notice.Water pump usually fail slowly. It first starts leaking coolant, and then the corrosion takes out the bearing. So if the car isn't using coolant and you don't have air in the radiator, it should be fine for now.
Some mechanics skip the water pump every other timing belt change if it turns smoothly and doesn't appear to be leaking at the 60K interval. But some Toyota pumps, well maintained with OEM coolant and distilled water, would start leaking coolant and giving the frequent "mysterious coolant use" problem many have posted about. I have seen both.
My take is that the 4 cyl pump is about $35 (Beck Arnley,
mjc13 wrote:
Thanks. We'd rather wait until Spring if it's safe to do so. I doubt that Toyota coolant was used, though - the car was serviced mainly at an indie shop.
Water pump bearings make an awful squeel as they are failing. I drive until this happens (or it's time for a timing belt replacement) and head for the repair garage at that time. Labor will far exceed the cost of the hardware. They will probably ask for 2 hours at $80 each.
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