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 $$!

 

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....

 

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.

 

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

 

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.

 

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