and it looks pretty nice; 3.0 litre V6, and evidently well maintained. From what I can glean from papers left behind by the previous owner, the truck came down from the Vail, Colorado area, and was traded in in Denver. It has 122k miles on it, and I have no way to know whether it's due a major service. My guess is that it is due for a 120k service, timing belt, and I was told that the water pump is leaking (by the dealership guy). A local Toyota shop estimates $2,000 for these services. Something else... as
I negotiated for the car, I noticed a "grinding" noise emanating from the front part of the motor... almost like a chatter. The sales guy suggested it was an alternator pulley, worked on it, and called it done. The noise persists. Can a water pump make this kind of noise?

Anyway, I thought I'd ask the crew here whether 2 thou is reasonable for the fixes described, and if alternatives exist -

Much obliged,
Pike in CO

 

Check out http://www.off-road.com/toyota/tech/v6tbelt/index.html . If you have any mech ability its not that hard. Cost me less than $100 for all the parts. Took about 3 hrs.

 

What else is included with that $2000? The timing belt and waterpump should be around $1000 or less (total). There shouldn't be hardly any labor associated with the waterpump because they have to tear everything apart to get to the timing belt. Most of the time, since they're in there for the timing belt, they'll just change out the waterpump too. There's also a tensioner thingy that might bring up the cost by a couple hundred, if it's going bad. The powersteering pump tends to leak after a while, too. You might want them to look at that, or just rebuild it as preventative maintenance.

Don't forget to have them check if the head gasket recall has been done.

 

is the powersteering pump a really common problem on these? I have a 94 3.0 also and i'm leaking ps fluid pretty much. i havn't had the chance to look at it to see if it was just the hoses or the pump, but i've got a full warrenty on everything so i hope it's the pump

 

replace the motor with a 3.4 or a 7m-ge

 

Pike, that is way to much, get a second opinion. Also if the headgasket has not been changed yet, then you can get Toyota to replace evrything at the same time and only pay for parts. That is the way I did it and it only cost me about $200. Give it a try.

 

Or 7M-GTE - VROOOOOOM!!!

 

Yup, fairly common. Toyota makes a seal rebuild kit. The kit is about $30, but if it's under warranty, then you're set.