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Water pump ?'s and Repair prices

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Old 11-12-2004, 11:05 PM
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Water pump ?'s and Repair prices

What has replacing the water pump cost you guys? And where did you get it done? I'm pretty sure mine just went, as my car poured all of its coolant onto the concrete and then began to over heat....

Something weird has been happening since then though. When the car gets hot, steam shoots out of cracks (i'm guessing) in the top of my radiator... Steam and coolant actually has been shooting out under pressure and my whole engine was covered in hot coolant at one point.... So on top of a new water pump i'm bought a new radiator also since this one isn't properly sealed...

Does that sound like my water pump went, or just my thermostat? I'm pretty sure its the pump, because i get this funny rattling noise when the engine gets really hot that i couldn't reproduce from a standstill with the hood open only when rolling....

Oh well Mainly i just wanna get pricing on the water pump repair since it looks like i'll be going in for one tomorrow, i'm thinking pepboys? Any other suggestions?
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Old 11-13-2004, 02:51 AM
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might be that the thermostat went, and ws stock closed and blew the system. or that the waterpump went bad and blew everything also. you'd see leaking from under the timing chain cover, the waterpump is driven by the chain if im not mistaken so the chances of it completely not working aren't high. its possible your radiator was bad to begin with, or your fans dindt go off, thers a multitude of things that couldve gone wrong that caused you to blow coolant out.
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Old 11-13-2004, 03:31 AM
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damn my water pump needs to be replaced 2...****...and installation is prety damn pricey.
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Old 11-13-2004, 05:35 AM
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Water pumps usually gradually weep at first. They don't just let go like that. Check the rest of your cooling system first before you change the pump. Also make sure you didn't overheat and damage your motor. It'd be worthless to tackle the water pump job (its a PITA) only to find out your engine has issues after overheating.
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Old 11-13-2004, 07:19 AM
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Yhea, don't be driving the car like that. Your bound to cause many more expensive problems.

I got my water pump fromt the dealer for $100. But then later compared it to one from Napa and they looked the same. Napa one was like $50. I would have gone with the Napa one if would have known.

Replacing the water pump is not a real easy job, IIRC the book time is like 4 or 5 hours. There are some pretty good instrutctions floating aound here on the org somewhere. It was a bit more that I could handle so I paid to have it done.
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Old 11-13-2004, 07:44 AM
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I've already replaced my water pump once, and i'm not doing it again, it was a HUGE pain in the ***, especially because one of the flanges on mine broke off, so i'd much rather pay someone to do it, which is why i wanna get an estimate, Pepboys is talkin like 12 hours of labor, which isn't right, there thinking they have to take the timing chain apart, you don't u just have to loose then tensioner on mine side, slide out the pump, slide in the new pump in (making it sound easy) and retighten the tensioner.... Its bad news though, i ended up having to buy a new tensioner because i lost the sping inside it, and a host of other issue's arose, so anyone actually get it done? and if so how much? and where?
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Old 11-13-2004, 11:37 AM
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I paid $550 out the door at the dealer. The first dealer wanted $700, then some little shops said between $250-400. One of the small shops kept telling me that I had a timing belt. I told them that I did not, but the person kept saying I think you do, that and some horror stories (about people taking it to shops that were not familiar with the car) convinced me to just bite the bullet and go to the dealer. No problems with it since . This is one of those things that someone with experience should do. I did not want the guy that kept saying timing belt work/learn on my car.
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Old 11-13-2004, 04:27 PM
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replace your radiator cap.
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Old 11-13-2004, 04:34 PM
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Doesn't sound like a water pump problem. Most of us that replaced the WP did so because the O-ring seals failed and not because the WP seized. I would suspect either the radiator, the cap or the therm. All those are cheaper to replace and much more DIY.
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Old 11-13-2004, 09:10 PM
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Well first off it is the water pump, secondly i have a horror story of my own to add.... Well after calling around for quote (pepboys said its 12 hour labor at $74 an hour..lmao) i got a quote from midas for 3.5 hours labor + the part which they didn't have in stock. Thats $309 bucks + i had to get the water pump from NAPA myself for $54 bucks.... Well all is well i get the car and the new pump to them, drop it off, and an hour later i get a call (far to early so i know its bad news) so here goes

Turns out the timing chain tensioner fell apart in the engine bay when they tried to remove it, so the spent 7 hours (so they say but aren't charging me for it) getting the pieces out of the engine (they say they got them all), but now i need a new timing chain tensioner, which they don't carry, and neither does anyone else it would seem. So since its sat. the earliest i can get the part shipped to me is monday overnighted so i get it on tuesday, meaning i'm without car till tues. at the earliest.... lovely! and thats hoping that i can even find the part, hopefully someone on the org has one if not i'll have to go through the stealership and there gonna charge me alot and probably have to order it meaning a longer wait..... oh well
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Old 11-13-2004, 09:28 PM
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if they got all the parts out of the engine bay, why do you need a new tensioner? I hope the thing didn't come apart while they were fishing it out of the timing chain cover (with pieces falling in it).
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Old 11-13-2004, 10:11 PM
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Originally Posted by Mishmosh
if they got all the parts out of the engine bay, why do you need a new tensioner? I hope the thing didn't come apart while they were fishing it out of the timing chain cover (with pieces falling in it).
sounds like thats exactly what happened.... when i did it on my old max, i had a similar problem, the piston in the tensioner fell into the engine bay, i fished it out but there was a tiny spring in it and that i never got out, turns out the engine was screwed anyway from overheating so i had to replace the engine shortly after.... It sounds like the tensioner in this current case actually broke into pieces...somehow (its a pretty solid metal object) i really have no idea since they didn't go into detail.... They just said they spent 7 hours fishing "pieces" out, its only 3 pieces when not broken (tensioner, piston and spring) so they made it sound like it broke up or something
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Old 11-14-2004, 08:46 AM
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This is the reason I bit the bullet and went to the dealership, they have more experience with our cars. I dropped it off in the afternoon (about 4pm), during the summer they are open till midnight. The service manager said that his main guy was not there, so he left it for the morning crew (which I guess had more experienced guys). Whenever I go there, I always ask for the same guy who worked on my car that time. He's actually come out and looked at my car a couple of times, to check something out. Both times he was right.
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Old 11-14-2004, 09:01 AM
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i just found puddles of coolant under my car last week, with no dripping previous, and took it in to a friend. he told me it was the waterpump and it needed to be replaced. so it was like 95$ for the pump with lifetime warranty and 4.5 hours of labor. total came out to 560-ish. i hate unexpected expenses like that... haha
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