My 2014 ES 350 has 110k should I follow my tech's suggestion and replace it now even if there're no issues with original pump ?

 

Unless you have a problem with it, why would you do it? You can check your owners manual and consider replacing the pump and hoses when Toyota recommends a coolant change. Note, I said consider, not do it. I was thinking of changing the hoses but members of this forum discouraged me (correctly) from doing, so I actually went and looked at the manual! I am personally a little nervous about this because we routinely drive 1,000 miles a day (yes, 1,000 miles a day!) from Denver to Chicago via I-80 which does not have many services.

 

No, your mechanic is upselling something silly.

The only time it makes sense to preemptively replace a water pump is if you're already doing a timing belt and most of the labor to get there has already been done.

 

Replace it if you see collant leak or if it makes noise.

 

If your mechanic does it for free, sure.

 

Just replaced mine at 120k. 2015 hybrid, replaced the thermostat as well. $850, I would do it if I were you. Broke down on the bridge, needed a tow truck and it was hot as hell on a Sunday.

 

Good advice and I agree, don’t replace the water pump or hoses. Usually I’ll wait until the pump start to weep, which could be anywhere from 100,000 to 200,000 or more. And hoses? I haven’t seen a hose fail in nearly 20 years.

But did you say you drive 1,000 miles a day??!! How many miles are on your car? Imagine you’re putting 50,000-60,000 a year on it (because you can’t possibly be running 1,000 miles every single day, right?).

 

Well if they are, I'd love to see what their odometer says after one year/365,000 miles. Or if they're changing their oil every week.

 

No, ha, ha. We live in Denver and visit family in the Chicago, Detroit area. We have not flown for a while because of Covid infection concerns. We don't want to pick something up in the airport or airplane and then give the infection to our elderly relatives. We feel it is safer to drive.

We do this a couple of times a year, not every day :-)

It is just my wife and I. We pack food and water etc in the car and leave at 5 or 6 am in the morning and generally drive until 10 or 11pm at night, stopping only for gas or nature breaks. We dont feel there is any point in getting to a hotel in the middle of nowhere at 4pm and just hanging around trying to sleep. It is better for us to just drive as the car is comfortable.

We take I-80, where the speed limit is 70mph through Colorado, Nebraska & Iowa. The traffic is usually doing 75 to 80 mph and we just set the cruise control at 80mph and keep the car between the lines. People are still overtaking us!

My wife and I swap driving duty every 4 hours or so, and it is not too bad. The passenger's job is to make sure the driver is hydrated, is awake and alert, and last but not least, good music is playing!

I had to get a nice foam cushion for the drivers seat. My rear end would get sore :-) Other than that so far we have found the ESh to be a very comfortable cruiser for these long trips. The road is mostly flat and the engine seems to be happy between 2,000rpm and 2,500rpm. I do put fresh oil in it before the trip. I hope our ESh lasts another few years and we can keep doing these trips. It is at 106,000 miles now. Dont know what maintenence we should do. The manual does not help.

Last week we drove west on I-80 to Salt Lake city. The speed limit in Utah is 80mph and the road goes through the mountains. The ESh struggles to maintain high speed at grades. It only has a 150 hp engine and at grade the traction battery runs out in a few seconds. Then the engine starts spinning at 4,000rpm to keep up at 75 or 80mph. It does NOT sound happy at that speed, so I take it off the cruise control and drop the speed. Lack of power in the mountains is the only gripe I have had with the cruising ability of this car. Other than that, on mostly flat roads it is a nice car to travel long distances.

Our other car is an EV, and IMO those are great for the city but too much of a pain for the crazy long trips we do in our ESh. The charging infrastructure is simply not developed yet, and even with charging, I dont want to wait an hour every 200 miles for the car to charge, if I want to drive straight from Denver to Chicago. I am too impatient!

 

I don’t know what the scheduled maintenance is for the hybrid, but for a regular ES 350 at 100,000 miles...coolant change, transmission service, spark plugs at 120,000 miles, brake fluid flush every two years (debatable if necessary), air and cabin filters every 1 year/30,000 miles.

I imagine a hybrid would have half the wear/use for the spark plugs and transmission fluid. However the coolant I’d think would certainly have similar use as the regular ES. IMO.

 

Honestly I would stick to the same maintenance schedule as the ES350 for the hybrid. But to the OP's concern, when the engine downshifts and goes to 3500-4000 rpm for a bit in cruise, it is more normal and not much of a concern for the smaller I-4 to do that. There are some benefits for an engine to be cycled higher in the rpm band from time to time.

Also for the OP, if you ever stop off for a hotel room, I would suggest downtown Des Moines (spend a little more but safe and quiet) or West Des Moines, on average you won't have to worry about loud people in the hallway or your car getting broken into.

 

did it overheat ? Or the engine just shut down automatically?

 

You can play this game with a long list of parts.

I had a fuel pump go out on a Lexus once and it left me stranded. Should you preemptively replace your fuel pump?

What about replacing the:

Radiator?
Alternator?
Starter?
Hoses?
Etc?

Lots of things can leave you stranded.

At a certain point, you just take repairs as they come unless you just want to buy a new car every few years and be under a factory warranty.

 

And most often than not, it’s the unexpected that fails. Eg I had to replace the tail light assembly because water gets in. And is not even an old car!