2006 water pump replacement skill set?

Hello All. Wondering how difficult it is to change water pump. A large amount of coolant 1 gal leaked out of my water pump. I need to change and was wondering if I wanted to accomplish or take to mechanic? Any info would be appreciated. Thank!

 

It’s pretty simple, drain coolant from bottom of radiator, take the belt off, take the fan and fan stroud off and you should have enough room to take out water pump out. Just change thermostat with water pump when you drain the coolant.

 

Not on an 06. You're at the very least looking at tearing down the front of the engine and while you're there might as well do the timing belt since it has to be removed to replace the pump.

 

Hello winning8, thanks for response. Someone mentioned timing belt condition and position could be complicated? Any thoughts?

 

I haven't done it myself but from what I understand it's not terribly complicated just time consuming.

 

Thank you. Festerw.

 

Timing belt and water pump will depend if you have enough tools to do it, impact wrench, air compressor or big breaker bar with a pipe, lay all the new parts on table and put all the nuts and bolts right on the new part, take your time line up the marks, even the timing belt have marks on them.

 

You failed to list which engine, that's kinda important. V8 or V6?

If V8, if you're gonna go there, your timing belt should be ideally changed every 9yrs/90k miles per Toyota, although you can skate to 10yr/100k. If yours hasn't been changed in that timeframe, or you don't know the last time, NOW is the time to do the water pump, tensioner, pulleys, and timing belt.

If you're not confident, get a shop to do it.

ONLY use Aisin parts for this job. DO NOT buy the parts off scAmazon or fleaBay, counterfeit kits are out there. This is the kit you're gonna want, specifically. Your local stores likely won't carry it. RockAuto is a clean source, no issue of fakes. I can get you a 5% off coupon if you want it.

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