1st gen Timing belt Replacement cost.

Just bought my first 04 Tacoma and I'm curious as to how much it costs to have the timing belt and water pump replaced.

 

I would recommend getting quotes. I found a one-man shop near me that quoted $500 for the timing belt and water pump replacement.

 

Toyota quoted be $830.

 

*me

 

I wouldn't trust the lowest bid.

 

Save some cash and do it yourself. There's tons of videos on the subject and TW is always a good place to ask. My .02 anyway.

 

Mine was 570 about 4 years ago .....in Ga

 

Dealer is pretty much always the highest. Usual cost seems to be $500-$800.

 

Dealers near me have all quoted around $1000 for the whole shebang (belt, pump, t-stat, rollers, tensioner, cam/crank seals, etc.) My independent mechanic that I typically go to quoted around $600 labor (+ the cost of the kit from ebay @ ~$290).

 

I vote diy as well. I had never done anything like this before and was my first serious maintenance job on any vehicle. But it's not that serious. Just really overwhelming. Taking my time it took me two half days. Mostly because the crank bolt and pulley gave me a hard time. Juggling the ac out of the way was fun too but those were the hardest parts to it. I could probly do it in a few hours now.

And I suggest getting the oem kit on eBay from aircabinman (I think is his name). The kit you listed is probly fine according to those reviews. But keep in mind that those reviews are probably right after they completed the job and not longevity reviews. I didn't read them all. If anything it might just not last as long as an oem kit would. I installed a similar kit to that for my girls passat and it seems to be good quality. I drove it 2k miles from Arizona to Michigan after I put about 500 miles on her before making the trip. No problems... Yet.

 

Did this couple weeks ago, never had disassembled and changed so many parts from a vehicle in my life. But its a DIY, for sure.

- AC Bracket - Why so many bolts? really take time put the ps pump away, unbolt the compressor, put away, reach the 4 bolts... waste a lot of time doing this
- install the new timing belt. The new one is so tight that is frustrating to align all marks and in the end some mark is out. take all apart e start again e and again...

 

I know of people with 200k+ miles that have done nothing but change the oil. I know maintenance needs to be done. Vehicles call for things to be replaced at x miles. I guess my question is, is this not one of those if it ain't broke don't fix it deals? $800 is a lot of money to fix something that doesn't necessarily need it?..
Forgive the newbie here.

 

I am 71 years old and things just don't work like they used to 50 years ago.

I did this job myself a couple of months ago (September 2015) and am including my exact costs for the job. I ordered, but did not replace the camshaft and crankshaft seals or the three fan belts or thermostat because I had replaced those last year. The parts were ordered from EBay:



I borrowed a pulley puller from OReilly's. The job took me 3 days, about 5 hours a day working at a nice, leisurely pace. I had no problems. Yes, the PS Pump was somewhat difficult and the AC pump was a real problem. Took me over an hour to remove the four bolts to the AC pump and another hour to reinstall it. Most of the time was crawling underneath and out again to get the correct combination of sockets and extensions. Seems like each bolt required a different combination. I reused the coolant as it was only about a year old.

Hope this helps.

 

Another vote for DIY. Did mine using the Aisin kit (I believe Aisin is OEM for Toyota) from Rockauto. Cost me $180 and I was able to complete the job in 1 long day.

I had to get 2 special tools, which I borrowed from a tech at the local Toyota dealer. They were a chain wrench and timing belt tensioner compressor. I linked to them for you. The latter tool is key because it allowed me to bypass having to remove the AC compressor, which is very hard to work with. Highly recommended.

 

I did it for around 400 in my garage. I bought the tool to compress the tensioner and a big ass torque wrench that I use the shit out of. Took me about 10hrs to do it. Its intimidating but not that bad. Take the radiator out as it frees up a lot of room. I also did the wratchet strap a breaker bar to my frame and bump the starter trick to get the crank pully broke loose. I would rate it as a 6 out of 10 on the difficulty scale just because its a lot of stuff to unbolt.

 

I spent about $300 on parts (timing belt and water pump kit, spark plugs and wires, and all new drive belts) and got quote for about $300 in labor.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Xv11NRc5Xg

Do it yourself.

 

That is a great vid.

 

Forgot about the chain wrench I used as well. Bought one and it helped a ton with the clutch fan. Used it on my girlfriend's car too. Also need to invest in a pulley puller, and especially try making that crank pulley tool. That crank bolt was a total bitch. I ended up shoving a pry bar in the flywheel. Was afraid I was gonna break a tooth off!! And not having a big enough breaker bar. Saw some bfpb (big fucking pry bar) at harbor freight I wanna get. Ha. But yeah, took everything I had to break that sucker loose by hand. Impact didn't even get it first try. And the crank pulley I had to use a small piece of wood and hammer and tap it side to side to rock it off. The shaft was a little rusty and seized up on there. Probly shoulda cleaned it somehow for next time, but oh well.

 

I used this thread. It is the most helpful thing imaginable.