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Bosch or Toyota Oem Water Pump

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by gwalia, Dec 18, 2011.

  1. gwalia

    gwalia New Member

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    I need to replace my engine water pump in my 2005. I found a bosch water pump for $38 for on amazon. (sold by amazon). The toyota pump is 80.

    Is it okay to use BOSCH water pump or should i just spend little extra and get the toyota oem. I mostly like oem parts but toyota water pumps seem to fail. I heard bosch is an OEM for european cars.

    I plan to use toyota coolant and a bando belt for $6 from amazon. My mechanic quoted me $100 labor for the replacement.

    What do you guys think?
     
    #1 gwalia, Dec 18, 2011
  2. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    AFAIK, all water pumps will eventually fail.

    Bosch is a German company. You can read up on them at Auto Parts Shopping Tips. I think we all know that German cars overall have inferior reliability to leading at least Toyota/Lexus and Honda/Acura... That said, I wouldn't be surprised if some Japanese cars have some components from Bosch.

    If it were me, I'd stick w/the Toyota part.
     
    #2 cwerdna, Dec 18, 2011
  3. jreed

    jreed Member

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    If you can, you might want to physically inspect the Bosch pump at a parts store before buying. I checked the picture on Amazon and they are showing only the outer housing and not the interior with the pumping vanes.
    On the Toyota pump the vanes are made of steel (at least, the one I installed a couple of weeks ago that I bought from an online Toyota dealership was), but the Bosch pump might be using plastic vanes.
     
    #3 jreed, Dec 18, 2011
  4. seilerts

    seilerts Battery Curmudgeon

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    Toyota redesigned most of their water pumps a few years ago. Word on the street is that there was some incompatibility with Super Long Life Coolant. I have no idea what that might have been. There have been many reports of failed engine water pumps on 04-07, but few, if any, on 08-09. Get one from Toyota.
     
    #4 seilerts, Dec 18, 2011
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  5. El Dobro

    El Dobro A Member

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    On some VWs with the plastic impeller on the Bosch pump, the pump turns, the impeller doesn't.
     
    #5 El Dobro, Dec 18, 2011
  6. josh2008

    josh2008 Active Member

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    Get the oem pump. The shaft seal was designed almost two years ago so all part pdc's should be purged of old style pumps by now. Make sure you use the Toyota Super Long Life coolant (pink) not the red (Long Life) coolant. Also be sure your mechanic is familiar with burping air out of the Prius cooling system. The pump is easy to change, I've been known to have the entire job done including burping in less then thirty minutes.
     
    #6 josh2008, Dec 18, 2011
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  7. gwalia

    gwalia New Member

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    I knew dealership is robbing people. They replace the pump in 30mins and charge 2 hours of labor. They don't even pay a decent wage to the actual tech. Most of the time service desk guy makes twice as much as the mechanic.

    $70 pump + $40 fuild + $20 dollar belt + 30min labor + Dealer dishonesty = $600 bill

    Do you live in sf bay area. If yes do you want to change prius water pump?
     
    #7 gwalia, Dec 19, 2011
  8. gwalia

    gwalia New Member

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    OEM it is.
     
    #8 gwalia, Dec 19, 2011
  9. josh2008

    josh2008 Active Member

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    Labor book time is 1.8hr-2.3hr (warranty pay is actually higher then that, which is EXTREMELY rare) depending on the book. I've it take some techs longer then that. The Prius was my specialty. I actually told our service advisors to charge less labor to do somethings cause I knew I could do it in less time and it was unfair to the customer. I'm not your typical rip-off got a boat payment to make grease monkey. I also worked for probably one of if not the most honest dealerships I've dealt with. Too far I live 3000 m iles away or I would be glad to do it for you.

    Some dealers/ dealership personnel are very dishonest, however not all of them are.
     
    #9 josh2008, Dec 19, 2011
  10. El Dobro

    El Dobro A Member

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    You have chosen wisely. :D
     
    #10 El Dobro, Dec 19, 2011
  11. gwalia

    gwalia New Member

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    I hope you are correct. My honda dealor wanted 2.5 hrs to change a lock actuator. I decided to read online and did the whole thing in less than 20mins. I am not a mechanic. Not sure why a dealership would take 2.5hrs to fix that. Whole thing was 10 to 12 screws.

    Tracy toyota gave me a quote for 550 for the water pump, $180 for the belt ( this is addition to the pump), $140 for tranny fuild change and $60 for ac cabin filter. I changed the filter less than 10 days ago. reason i got the quote was because i took my car in for a recall. After the visit i regret taking my car to the dealership.

    San Jose stevens creek lexus gave my gf a $1500 quote to change front shocks on her gs300 because it was squeaking. They charged her $100 for an inspection. This is on top of $200 oil change and inspection. I could not belive that lexus needed suspension work at 80k. Lexus is suppose to be the best build car. I put the car on some jack stands. It was a loose bar. I re torqued everything and it was super quiet.

    I did not mean to imply that you are a grease monkey. I just do not trust the stealerships.
    I always want to do business with a honest mechanic who is skillful and honest. I would take a rookie mechanic than a dishonest service advisor. I guess it is just the way i grew up. Dishonesty was very tolerated in my family. Stupid is 1000 times better than a thief.


    I will not do business with stealership service departments till they stop paying the staff on commision. It is simply a conflict of interst i do not like. Service people should be salary/Hourly and fix whatever is broken. They should not be paid more because they can scare the customer and get more money. If you do not fix this you will crash on the road. If you do not fix this you need to buy a new car. It is even worse for women.

    Watch this

     
    #11 gwalia, Dec 20, 2011
  12. seilerts

    seilerts Battery Curmudgeon

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    Have you not heard of Luscious Garage, arguably the best Prius garage in the nation, in downtown San Francisco and owned by Carolyn Coquillette, the arguably best female Prius mechanic in the world?
     
    #12 seilerts, Dec 20, 2011
  13. gwalia

    gwalia New Member

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    No i have not. Thanks for your help. I also found art in berkeley. I have never used his shop but liked his website and articles.

    Art's Automotive
     
    #13 gwalia, Dec 21, 2011
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