guide to replace water pump

[floriauck]

Hi all,

This is my first post here. I recently had some problems with my Toyota Camry 1998. Car was overheating and I took it to the mechanic who said that the water pump was broken. My camry has 170,000 miles on it so I need a new one. Is it "easy" to replace or should I have it done at a shop. How much for a waterpump? Is there a guide? From what I read here, I also need to replace a belt?

thanks for any help,
Florian

[xtremeskier97]

The belt you will want to replace is the timing belt...as you will be in there already.

Give me a sec...there is a thread somewhere about this. Ill post back.

**EDIT**
Man..ive been searching for a while now and I cant find it. Anyone else know where it is?

[floriauck]

I know. I couldnt find anything through a search either but I am sure there must be some posts about this somewhere on here. hopefully somebody knows.

[Eye8Pussies]

pick up a haynes manual....it's good enough for what you need.

or go on auto zone and they have online guides as well.


basically, if you can do a timing belt change, then you can do your waterpump as well. The waterpump part is simple- hardest part is keeping everything clean so it doesn't leak. Otherwise, it's really just a timing belt change.

[xtremeskier97]

Originally Posted by Eye8Pussies

pick up a haynes manual....it's good enough for what you need.

or go on auto zone and they have online guides as well.


basically, if you can do a timing belt change, then you can do your waterpump as well. The waterpump part is simple- hardest part is keeping everything clean so it doesn't leak. Otherwise, it's really just a timing belt change.

Yeah...i just got through reading in the FSM that I downloaded and it seems pretty simple once you get the timing belt mess out of the way. If you download the FSM in the Gen3/4 section, look on page 242 of the engine pdf.

[unkit]

I've never done this myself, but in terms of timing belt removal, u may want to look at these threads. I assume the manual is not as good for doing this type of thing, otherwise the threads wouldn't have been started.

http://toyotanation.com/forum/t109966.html

http://toyotanation.com/forum/t149232.html

Good luck with it all.

[Stillrunning]

Originally Posted by floriauck

I took it to the mechanic who said that the water pump was broken.

What did he mean by "broken"? Not turning? Leaking coolant at shaft? Impeller rusted off?

[floriauck]

by "broken" i mean that it needs to be replaced. Why? I dont know. I was told by the mechanic. (I went to two different mechanics and both came to the same conclusion). Do you think it is important for me to know what exactly is wrong with it?
I looked at parts on advanced auto and napa and the water pump an timing beld are really cheap. One mechanic quoted me 400 for the water pump so thats why I would try to install it myself.

(I going to look the the links to the manual now)

thanks for all the help.

florian

[floriauck]

I looked at these post about the timing belt. VERY detailed. So, I would take of the timing belt and then I could get to the water pump? Do I understand that correctly?
thanks again.
florian

[Stillrunning]

Originally Posted by floriauck

Do you think it is important for me to know what exactly is wrong with it?

If you care about getting ripped off, yes. Otherwise it doesn't matter. Was the car overheating because you were loosing coolant?

[Eye8Pussies]

basically, yes.

once you remove the timing belt as well as some other miscellaneous parts, you can then remove the waterpump.