So I've been hearing a low grinding sound coming from my car's engine and I also noticed some coolant leaking. I figured it might be the water pump, but I still had Lexus take a look to make sure. The dealer confirmed that the water pump needs to be replaced and I'm out of warranty so they're charging me $720!

I want to try and replace it myself. Do you guys know of any DIY out there for this or any sources that I can use to help me out?

Thanks in advance!

 

Your best bet is to buy or beg someone with computer access for a copy of the factory service manual. I have only seen scraps of it floating around here. If you think you'll have the car for a while and like doing all these repairs yourself, then it is a good investment. I'm guessing that they're around $150. The one for my Supra was cheaper than that though.

 

Yea, I might have to do that. Somebody told me about the TIS website where you can get 24hr access to some files for about $10.

 

TIS is what dealerships use. It's the most current and complete information available. It's $15 for 2-days access.

 

pm me your vehicle info like yr ,model,rwd,awd and email, i'll try to help you out.

 

I replaced my water pump myself last fall. Cheapest place to get a rebuilt pump is rockauto.com (A-1 Cardone for $73.79). If you search you will find that I did a review on the pump. Install took about 2 hours and a few beers. If you want I can write up a basic DIY and send it to you.

 

I thought I will posted here for those of you needing the info as well,hope it helps

 

Just ordered the parts from Sewell. Let me just say that Sewell is awesome! Paid $156 for the pump after the clublexus discount! Can't beat that. Wish me luck on the install.

 

Damn, do you really have to remove the A/C compressor to swap the water pump? That sucks.

 

I've actually read from multiple places that this is not needed. I hope that's true! I guess I"ll find out once I"m in there, but from what I can see, it should not be necessary.

 

Man, for your sake, I hope so. Having to deal with a refrigerant system is a PIA and necessitates more tools/vacuum pump.

If possible, snap a couple pics of the water pump swap.

Good luck

 

Good luck! All I can say is that I'm glad the previous owner of my 350 had the water leak fixed and had it replaced, along with all of the gaskets/o-rings. Hope the "new" one holds up for a while.

 

Just wanted to give a huge thanks to Iceman5210 and lancematic for tips on replacing the water pump on my car. I finished it this weekend and so far its looking good. Took a bit of work, but I saved about $550 and I became a little more familiar with my car! I wanted to do a DIY, but my camera charger is missing so I couldn't do it.

In case anyone is curious, its relatively simple to do the install. You don't need to remove the AC compressor at all. There are only two tricky parts to it. The first is removing the water pump pulley. You don't need a special tool for this. You can use a screwdriver or something similar to counteract the spin of the pulley to allow you to remove the 4 bolts on it. The second is removing one bolt from the water pump that's partially blocked by the tensioner pulley. The repair procedure actually says to remove the AC compressor to allow you to remove the whole tensioner pulley assembly and gain access to the bolt, but this is not necessary. As lancematic pointed out to me, all you have to do is remove the tensioner pulley. It will be a left hand threaded bolt.

Other than that, it should be relatively easy to do. If anyone needs help, I'll be more than happy to help. Just send me a message!

 

Glad you were able to do it. When I changed the water pump on my Supra, the scariest part was starting the car after putting it all back together and watching the gaskets for leaks!

 

Confirming what the OP said that the accessory belt tensioner pulley bolt(s) are counter-threaded?