I’m leaking a little coolant from my 2001 Ford Taurus and the mechanic says he needs to replace the timing cover gasket. Says its about a 7 hr job and estimates in the $700 range. The water pump was replaced about 4 months ago and he said he would warranty it. But I’ve read that bolts might not have been tightened during the WP replacement and could be causing the leak. No way for me to know w/o a second opinion. Should I get another opinion? Used this garage for years and always generally satisfied, but always want to make sure unnecessary work isn’t being done. Thoughts?
If you are asking whether the leak might be from the water pump and NOT from the timing cover, then no one will be able to answer that remotely. On an '01 car it wouldn’t be odd for any part of the cooling system to start leaking. So if you can’t double-check the leak location yourself (you can buy UV dyes for this), then you’d want a 2nd opinion.
You didn’t say which engine it has (vulcan or duratec), but I don’t think it matters - water pump replacement on either one doesn’t involve the timing cover at all. So if you’re asking if the timing cover might be leaking because the last job wasn’t done right, the two things are unrelated.