GS714

Correct me if I am wrong, the water and the timing belt are driven together in the Avalon? I think most front wheel drive car are designed like that. Space constraint maybe, who know? For the GS300's case, I was surprised to see that the water/P is driven by the serpentine belt. When I first bought the car, I said, oh man the timing belt and water pump job, that is big buck rite there. After driving lot and lot of front wheel drive car, I said those two are Tango Together. $$$$ at the dealer or $$$ at local garage. I stumbled on the a post in here, can't remember where. The individual within the post said you can do the Timing/B and the W/P together or separately.
Anyway, I just did the timing belt and the water pump altogether this passed weekend at 98K. I looked at the Timing/B and It still have lot and lot of life to it. I am not making any suggestion folks. It's your car.

sam12345

iTrader: (1)

Ok, I did not know that. When I bought my gs I went to Portland to get it. The car had 156000 on it and I did not want to risk ithe timing belt breaking on my 1800 mile trip back home so I had someone change the belt rather than doing it myself like I normally would. The car had the original timing belt by the way. The guy changed the water pump also and he told me it was leaking a little. The previous owner had put the green coolant in the car rather than the Toyota red stuff so I don't know if that reduced the longevity but apparently the pumps life is around 160k. Another reason to change it. And yes you are correct on the Avalon the water pump is driven by the timing belt, that is why the pump freezing made the belt fail.