Hello Everyone
I am going to change my timing belt, drive belt and another belt tomorrow. The dealer said they are just going to inspect the water pump as it usually does not need to be changed. It seems Elantra has a different type of water pump compared to other cars…
Any ways, does any one has a suggestion as what else to change while the mechanic is changing the belts? Thanks
Timing belt, water pump, timing belt tensioner pulley, timing belt idler pulley, front crankshaft seal and drive belts.
Many thanks for the response! I want to minimize the cost by replacing as many items as possible at this point with timing belt.
Most cars seem to have a timing belt change at around 100,000 miles. Since your car will have a second timing belt at 120,000 miles, you can wait until then to change your water pump.
When I did this on my Corolla I changed the timing belt and the drive belts and inspected the idler, tensioner, and water pump for any signs of problems. They all looked ok so I didn’t change them out. Has worked for me.
Are you doing this yourself, or is a dealer shop doing it? If you are having this done by a dealer or a shop, at least from my experience with the Corolla – may not apply in your case as your car is different – I’d recommend changing all the items as mentioned by @rattlegas above. It is relatively inexpensive insurance as fixing those items should one of them fail can be nearly as expensive as re-doing the timing belt. Most of the expense is in the mechanics time to take everything apart and put it back together, most of which has to be re-done if one of the other items fails.
Although I am somewhat hesitant to recommend replacing only the belt, if I were facing the identical question on my own Elantra I would likely replace the belt it everything else looked good. That would be based on my planning to replace everything prior to the scheduled 120,000 belt replacement. The Hyundai timing belts are somewhat difficult, the engine is a valve bender, but history would indicate that the incidental parts are highly likely to last another 60,000 miles.
If you brought the car to me as a professional mechanic I would prefer to do the complete job but wouldn’t insist as I have on cars with 90,000+ miles on the original belt. But as a professional the owner might wish to hold me responsible if the water pump failed at 119,000 miles and resulted in a trashed engine.
There is no correct answer etched in stone anywhere. The bet is to you.
Thank you every one for the response. I am getting this job done by the dealer. The dealer mentioned that they are going to inspect it and replace it if necessary. I think I am going to ask them to just replace the WP along with other items you guys mentioned.
At only 60K, I would let the water pump go and wait till the 120K belt change to replace it.
I agree with the others. It’s fine to let the water pump stay as long as it passes visual inspection. They usually fail well beyond 120k miles anyway - you only replace it then on the off chance that it would fail early so you don’t have to pay all that labor a second time. Unless it’s already gone bad (which I would doubt), replacing it at 60K will be a waste of money in the vast majority of cases.
@shadowfax
The water pump on my 2005 Camry was crusty . . . with about 72K
What if OP leaves the pump in place, because it looks fine and only has 60K, and it starts leaking at 72K . . . ?
60K is not a lot of miles, and replacement is no guarantee that there won’t be a problem.
That said, if I was to do this kind of job for someone else (as a customer) I would do the pump. Or if I had no choice but to pay someone else to do work like this, then I would have the pump done. But I wouldn’t put the odds of the new pump not having any problems until the next timing belt at zero. Only at something a little lower than the odds of the original pump having a problem.
I think we’ve just seen up selling in action.
“up selling in action.”
A mechanic doing a timing belt job for a paying customer would be unwise to not recommend replacement of the water pump, in my opinion
This is one example of where up selling would be appropriate . . . and not a dirty word
I didn’t mean it as a derogatory term. We often hear about services recommended early at a dealer shop, and now we see other mechanics doing exactly the same thing. It is a question of risk. Any part can fail at any time, and the longer it runs, the higher the risk becomes. Some people are comfortable with the higher risk of replacing the water pump and some are not. And it does seem that many experts are more conservative than amateurs like me. I think the perceived risk of losing repeat business may have something to do with it.
@jtsanders
“higher risk of replacing the water pump . . .”
Don’t you mean the higher risk of NOT replacing the water pump . . . "
Or do you mean the risk of replacing the water pump, but botching the job?
I suppose a lot could depend upon the OP’s love of gambling and accepting any loss without anger if the belt is changed and the pump goes belly-up the next month; taking the belt and engine with it.
Proper repair is the kit, not just the belt. The pump on the Hyundai is also 7 years old and inspection of a pump or tensioner may or may not reveal a problem. Tensioners or pumps can feel perfectly fine one month and scatter the next.
I was thinking higher risk of replacing later.
I think the dealer didn’t include wp and other items in my quote so that I get the job done with them. I got higher quote from other independent mechanics. I went to the dealer yesterday and got a corrected quote with wp and other belts and pulleys. I guess I am doing the job at another mechanic since they along with you recommended changing wp.