Notraps

I bought a money pit...but love the working to make it mine factor.

The Beaver Toyota dealership in Santa Fe, NM reported that they replaced the water pump on this truck 10k miles ago. I noticed some leaking of coolant (green) after purchasing this and upon further investigation found this on the the waterpump...






I'm not an expert, but I'm assuming I'm going to have to redo the water pump job they claim to have done yeah?

j2the-e

Whats the time frame? Warranty is for 1 year, 12k miles.
You just bought the truck? Maybe the previous owner blew it up and put in a junkyard engine 5k miles ago.

Notraps

Vins match so I dont' think that an engine swap is the case. The dealership said that they replaced the water pump, found the head gasket was leaking and the po declined repairs. I'm assuming that was over a year ago as they told me it's out of warranty.

I have a hard time believing that the dealership would break the oil cooler... and try to cover their tracks by telling the po the head gasket is leaking, but I don't see any head gasket symptoms, and I've seen some unbelievable swindling before. Funny thing being that the timing belt looks like it's practically new, but they have no record of replacing the belt.

New Mexico is a whole different beast when it comes to quality IMO. I'm taking it in stride given this truck will eventually be up to my standard of quality.

Notraps

I guess my real question is if that Gates water pump on rockauto.com is a decent swap?

j2the-e

Rockauto also sells the Aisin water pump. A much better choice for only $15 more

Notraps

Rockin...thanks man

250000_yota

I had a friend who worked at beaver for a while. Personally I wouldn't trust him to work on my truck, based on the stories he told me of some of the things he and his colleagues did down there.

And I'd agree with J. Spend the money. Get the aisin kit. Can't go wrong with OEM.

Innocent Fool

Yea, I love dealerships. Won a free oil change at a Toyota dealership here in town so I thought I'd take it in. Take my 90 4x4 22R in and they guy comes back and tells me... The engine is painted yellow... So I'm like what, you can't change oil in a yellow engine?

Then they call me out to the shop. The mechanic says he found an oil leak. Says it's a head gasket... Yea, OK. I know the guy who rebuilt the engine was a diesel mechanic (which is why he painted the engine Cat yellow) and knows his stuff. I looked at the leak earlier and found it was leaking at the top where the timing cover meets the head. No biggie... Anyway the dealer mechanic tells me the head gasket is leaking and it'll cost like $1200 to fix... I just told him thanks for pointing that out... Truck's running fine and the whole thing was a sales job.

So by the time I was in and out it took 1 1/2 hours. To CHANGE THE OIL!
What a waste of time

Last time I take my rig to a dealer for anything and that's why I do all my own work!

Innocent Fool

Double post

250000_yota

Ya, I'm not trashing all dealerships (considering I work for one) but there are some questionable ones out there. I personally know a few guys down at beaver and Carl Malone in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, and like I said above, I wouldn't trust them alone with my stuff.

Notraps

Let me ask you guys... Aisin has the water pump timing belt package that comes with the tensioner. It's 228$ on RockAuto...but the parts bought individually are about 30$ cheaper.

Am I missing something?

250000_yota

No. That's just a little extra for putting it all together for you. That comes with the belt, tensioner and water pump right? Anything else?

Notraps

Yeah. Gaskets and hydra Tensioner. Doesn't have it listed, but does have it pictured.

http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/more...240&cc=1278110

Co_94_PU

iTrader: (-1)

Individual shipping prices, would be a start. They have a customer service number, might be able to clarify the "package" contents.

wyoming9

iTrader: (1)

One has to judge every dealership by itself you can`t lump them all together.


With your Truck it is possible the owner left a new timing belt then it would not show up.

If I have the dealer change a fan clutch on a 3.4 a give them all new belts it will only show a new fan clutch was installed( this is just an example)

LITLRED

Just my 2 cents...
I think dealers do a lot of free work so some of them make up for it by overcharging the rest of us. I think it would be difficult to be a thorough, honest mechanic and make a profit.

Notraps

I know it's your two cents and I'm not judging you for that viewpoint but I disagree.

It seems that making a profit is really what destroys quality. Define profit...because if you make 1$ per day extra then you spend...technically that's profit.

I understand that it's difficult to deal with the public, but there isn't any reason or excuse to cheat people to pay the bills. That's how our "great" nation became so ˟˟˟˟ed up in the first place. We lack, and are in desperate need of quality. And if not quality, at the VERY least honesty.

j2the-e

The accountants and number crunchers in charge would rather pay a parts monkey $8/ hour than pay a real tech a decent wage. And quality suffers because of it. It's all about the bottom line. Good, honest techs are out there, but they are an endangered species. It used to be that if you went to the dealership, you knew you would pay more, but you also knew that the job would be done right. Now, the dealerships are actually trying to compete with places like Brake Masters and Walmart. And the only way to do that is to pay the techs less money. If a tech is making less per hour, he has an incentive to make more hours. Unfortunately, that often leads to dishonesty and poor quality of work.

Notraps

Unfortunately yes. Quick correction though. Most shops pay techs by the job, which is billed out for a number of hours. If the tech gets the job done in less time they still take that job's pay. So the incentive is to cut corners and get it done as fast as possible. Where as if it were straight $$/hour, you might see and improvement in quality...where techs take as long as possible on each job.

The whole capitalism game is complex and fickle beast that consumes quality for profit. It doesn't work over the long run and I think we are finding that out as a nation. Ask any government worker right now how they feel about the economy.


...jeeze this thread is turning rant really quick.

250000_yota

Thankfully, this is why I work for the dealership I do. Unlike a normal shop, our technicians are paid salary, as opposed to flat rate, which is the technical name for the pay type your speaking of. Thanks to this, we are able to focus on the quality of our repairs and diagnosis. This turns into better customer service. I'm happy to say that my dealer is one of the highest rated in the country by Toyota. Now, so that this doesn't turn into an ad for my company, I won't tell you guys which one I work for, so don't ask.