Toyota Camry Water pump leak issue-My Engine need to be replaced

Maintenance/Repairs
1

My Toyota Camry car got water pump leak issue and it overheated my engine and it needed replacement. I am out of warranty period.It has 38K miles on it and 5 year 6months old. Toyota dealer asking me to replace the engine, water pump, and other misc parts.I have not received any Recall. Is my VIN number missed in Recall. Am I ripped off because of Toyota issue.

2

Any comment on this will be much appreciated.

3

You had leak? Was coolant low? Quite a bit low? Empty?

4

Did you stop the car immediately when the engine overheated?

5

If it’s out of warranty it’s out and Toyota is under no legal obligation to repair it free of charge.

As to recalls I have no idea what recall you’re referring to nor do I even know the year model of your car. Five and a half years old could mean a 2008, 2009, etc.

A leaking water pump did not roast the engine. The engine was roasted because of not stopping immediately, ignoring the temperature gauge, etc.
An engine does not BBQ itself in a few seconds; it takes time.

6

You can enter your VIN number on the Toyota webpage to obtain a list of recalls for your vehicle.

http://www.toyota.com/recall

Ed B.

7

Thanks for the reply. Mine is 2009 Toyota Camry. Dealer said Coolant is empty because water-pump has stopped working. There is no indicator on the dash board or no sign of engine overheat.I am sure temperature gauge was normal. I looked at when it started little noise from engine. I can not stop it because it is highway But i was going slow. I thought I should check up after I reach home in 5 miles.But it got some smoke and stopped immediately.
Yes Toyota has no obligation to repair it for free. But I think my engine ,water pump,dashboard got some manufacturing defect. Contacted Toyota on this. They are talking to dealer to reduce the price and give some cash for the repair.

Thanks…

8

If the water leaked out the temp gauge may not go up, because it is no longer surrounded by fluid. Hopefully Toyota will cut you a break on the price. Was this a 4 or 6 cylinder engine?

9

Its 4 cylinder. Is this Toyota issue . Initially said it costs $6,800 .But now dealer came down to 6k. on top of it Toyota can give some break. But still cost me couple of grands from my pocket.

10

Good for you. Original repair was 6800! You are down to 2000. That is a very good deal for a new motor.

11

How much is Toyota willing to cover?
The price you’re being quoted is thousands of dollars higher than what an independent shop would charge to put in a remanufactured engine, but without knowing how much your end cost will be it’s impossible to suggest a direction to go in. If the cost to you is only a couple thousand, that ain’t bad.

12

I can’t find a recall for the belt driven pump only the electric. Toyota does have a Water pump TSB T-SB-0117-11 and lots of complaints on websites.

13

This is helpfull. I can show it to dealer. Thanks.

14

Still final cost to me is $6000. Toyota still working on it to break the price.

15

How do they know the engine is bad? The smoke could have been steam and the noise all coming from the water pump. I would put on a new water pump and start the engine.

If the engine did not shut itself down, but you shut it down because of the noise and smoke, then I am not convinced that you need a new engine.

At the very least, the belt can be removed and the engine started. If it runs smooth for 15 seconds, then shut down and replace the water pump.

16

Thanks Keith. your advice is much appreciated.
My Car is with Dealer. I will go to him and do that.

17

Be sure that he does it in front of you. You want to witness it for yourself.

18

Water pumps fail as yours did and the ones from the other posters on those sites. These sites are really only bullitin boards, just like this one. They are not an official site that lists the TSBs for any car, they just compile complaints.

I doubt that the dash did’nt show some light or that the gauge was way too high.
I know you don’t think so, but maybe you missed it…as things sometimes happen pretrty fast.

http://www.nhtsa.gov/cars/problems/

or

http://www.edmunds.com/car-maintenance/guide-page.html

Yosemite

19

I just gave links t the forums to show he was not alone and others have the same problem.

20

Sorry @Knfenimore, I though that the OP was the one that listed those links.

Yosemite