scott d

Hey guys, just wanted to share in hopes some of you can save some cash. I just did the water pump, timing belt, idler bearing, tensioner bearing, thermostat, etc on my 97 runner with the v-6. I wanted to use all Toyota parts, but didn't want to pay for them. I found good deals online and thought I would get the info out there to others who are going to do this maintenance. I bought the water pump and timing belt from rockauto for like $75 including shipping. I got an Aisin water pump from them for like $50ish and I got a Gates timing belt for like $20. An Aisin water pump is what came in our trucks. You can see where they ground the word Toyota off of the pump I got from rockauto. I don't know what kind of timing belt is original equipment, but the Gates belt I bought was made in Japan. I would think the original belt was either a Gates, a Mitsuboshi, or a Bando (all good belts in my opinion). Rockauto didn't have the original brand of idler and tensioner bearings, but I found them at carpartsdiscount.com. I got a Koyo tensioner bearing and an NSK idler bearing for like $75 including shipping. These are the original brand bearings that came in our trucks. Toyota wanted something like $500 or so for the same parts, I paid $150 including shipping for the original brand parts. I bought the thermostat from Toyota for $20 because I couldn't figure out what brand they came with. I also did the two radiator hoses for $10 each and installed a Hayden 679 tranny cooler and bypassed the original for like $60 ish. Total cost was around $250 for everything. Hope this helps someone save some $$!

J2F42C

All OEM manufacturers: (I'm installing this one in the spring)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Toyot...Q5fAccessories

Almost all OEM (except Tstat, idlers, and the PS pump belt is not the Bando part# recommended by Toyota yet is the one recommended by Bando..)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Toyot...Q5fAccessories

Choose your poison, both will work fine....

scott d

I saw both of those. They both had parts that I didn't want/need and the second one says GMB/Koyo for the bearings. Koyo/Nsk is what I wanted, I think GMB is an inferior brand and I didn't want to put any questionable parts on that would wear out prematurely and make me do the job again sooner than necessary. In the end, I decided to get just the parts that I wanted to change and I liked the $170 price a lot more than the $288 for them. If you want/need to change those other parts that looks like a good kit. For people not wanting the accessory belts, seals, and tensioner itself that kit may not the best option available.

Taco Burrito

scott d:

Can you share with us the part numbers you bought for this project? Was everything you bought comparable to this kit: http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/moreinfo.php?pk=1798452

rworegon

All brands in this kit are the same as you will find in Toyota boxes. However, this kit is not as complete as others you will find.

scott d

Don't have the part #'s anymore, but that kit looks very comparable to what I got.