60,00 mile service. New water pump? suspicious. Under extended warranty?

Get a 2nd opinion at another Toyota dealer. But water pumps *do* fail, sometimes. Whether your extended warranty covers this depends on that warranty.

 

Hi Sharon,

Suggest that you ask to be shown the water pump seepage. If it is leaking you should be able to see a reddish or pinkish powder residue where the leak is occurring.

If you have the Toyota extended warranty then this repair should be covered.

 

Sharon,

If your extended warranty happens to NOT be the official Toyota Financial Services one (in other words a 3rd party one that may have a lot of loopholes so that it won't cover the water pump), your factory warranty for the drive train is 5 yrs/60,000 miles (not the 50,000 you stated), so it should be evident (if the dealer isn't lying to you) that the seepage/leaking started before the 60,000 miles, so it should be covered under the factory warranty. However, the thing I'm not sure about here is if the water pump is considered part of the engine to them (I think it is).

Ken (in Bolton,Ct)

 

At this age of the vehicle. If you have to take the water pump off it is better to replace.

 

A little weep around the shaft seal of the mechanical, engine-driven
water pump is *not* a problem. It can happen under higher pressure
when things get hot, and will fling a very thin line of pinkish
crust up onto the hood liner. But if you're not actually losing
coolant at any visible rate, it's not a problem as the volume
is very low and occurrence infrequent.
.
My car's been doing it every since I got it.
.
Backing off belt tension a little bit may also help.
.
_H*

 

I disagree with Hobbit on this point. If the leak is sufficient to fling coolant on the hood, then the pump should be replaced.

In the case of the OP who apparently has extended warranty coverage, there should be no question about replacing the water pump now.

 

The water pump is only about $50 from Toyota and I replaced the damaged one on my salvage car in about an hour.

 

I agree wiith you. I bought a used 2005 prius from a bmw dealership. It had 100k. Car was in perfect condition. I bought some denso spark plugs, air filter, ac cabin filter, oil filter, etc from amazon.com. I came to prius chat and read the forms and replaced everything myself. I also decided to register my car on toyota owners website. Toyota had a waterpump recall for electric water pump. I made an appointment and showed at my toyota dealership. I told them that i just got the car and would like to get the recall done. My car was ready in about an hour. I was told that my car needs another water pump for engine 480 with labor, water pump belt 180 with labor, new ac filter 59.99, new air filter 30, transmission flush 180, coolant replacement 120 etc.

I was really surprised because bmw dealership gave me a whole inspection report. They did a full inspection. They even changed tires because it did not meet bmw standards. I would have kept old tires for another 10k. They had brake pad readings, tire pressure, fluid checks, carfax ,etc.

I knew this was all made up because i had just serviced my car few days ago. Everything i did matched with bmw paper work. How can these people tell me that i need new filters when i changed them two days ago? However i was still concerned about water pump so i bought a water pump, coolant and belt. My family mechanic put the car on his lift and could not find any leak. He decided to change the coolant since car had 100k and bmw did not change the coolant. I paid my mechanic $40 for half an hour of labor. My mechanic worked at honda dealership for 4 years and he said service advisor make up all kinds of service because they are paid on commision. Half of them are used car sales people. He said mechanics did most of the work and service advisors made 6 figures at the dealerships

I took all the parts back to dealership and got a refund. I asked for a service manager but he was on lunch. I wrote a bad survey when i was send one.

In the mean time i received a gift basket from bmw thanking me for my business. It came with swiss choclates, olive oil, cheese, cookies, etc. It looked expensive.

Bottomline i am never going back to steallership. I am not even sure if they did the recall or just parked the car in the lot. Thanks to everyone on prius chat for sharing valuable info with everyone

Sorry about my rant. I just hate dishonest service people trying to exploit anyone that steps into the dealership

 

I have a used 2005 Prius as well and just experienced a stealership experience. My water pump had been recalled so I brought it in. They told me it would take 3 hours to fix it.

Well, after two hours they told me they were done, not to mention they told me my auxillary battery needed to be replaced, another water pump, some headlights, a belt, new wipers etc. etc. Well unbeknownst to them I had brought my car in the shop a couple of days before to get an oil change, new tires and coolant flush and no one in the shop mentioned these other issues. The dealership quoted me over $1000 worth of work just because i decided to bring in my car on a recall issue. ( And there was nothing wrong with the wipers - I replaced them last year).

I didn't get any of the work done, and to be honest, I don't think they replaced the water pump. I asked the service guy why it only took two hours when he quoted me three and he said that he requested really fast service because he knew I wanted to get out of there. HAHAHA! Right.

The next time Toyota sends me a recall notice I'm throwing it in the garbage. What a bunch of scam artists!!!

 

If I'm taking a car in for work that involves replacing parts, I sometimes mark the old part to make it easy to tell if it has been changed. Or if it's an internal engine or other internal part, do something so I can tell if that part of the engine has been opened up. A small dab of hardening putty or bondo on the side of a bolt head does the job.

 

1. I suggest you look for the inverter coolant pump which is behind the driver's headlamp assembly and in front of the main relay/fuse box. See if it looks like it is new, or if it is covered in dust/dirt (which would imply it is original.)

2. I also suggest that you differentiate between Toyota Motor Sales USA which is sending the recall notice, and the local dealer you dealt with. Although the latter may be acting in a devious manner, if TMS USA sends a recall notice then the car really could benefit from service. Hopefully you can find a better local dealer to work on your car.

 

I just bought my 2005 Toyota Prius from the original owner who was incredibly kind and seemed to be up-to-date on top of everything involved with his car... all the records since ownership. I took it to the dealership to have the oil changed (the original owner's suggestion) and have them install the synthetic oil - they had a sale, but somehow I still managed to pay full amount - Victory Honda - Canton, MI. Love so much of what I've read since I purchased this car last Saturday, but now I've been told by the dealership that the water pump leaks and with that I need to replace some coolant thing (a coolant thing was replaced at 120K by the original owner). After reading some of the notes here, I'm concerned. I can't afford to have my sweet, new to me, car faulter because of my ignorance, but don't know if they're telling the truth or not. How do I know if I do indeed have a leak?? Not at all mechanical, in case this note doesn't make it obvious. The service guy, when I tried to get him to provide detailed info and put it in writing, danced around it, just as he did with the "sale" price of the synthetic oil. How do I know and what do I do?

 

A Honda dealer? I would start by taking it to a Toyota dealer for diagnosis. (But check Yelp for reviews of Toyota dealers near you. The one with the Very Similar name doesn't have many good reviews.)

 

This is why you have to become very familiar with all the fluid containers under the hood. Man or woman.

Its just like any other car in this instance. Nothing hi tech or different about the fluid reservoirs in this car. You have to minimally participate in your car's health because if you don't and leave it all to the wolves to take care of it will quickly become very expensive. The wolves in this case have nice waiting rooms and Service Advisers.

Things you need to check weekly. You have:

Engine Coolant reservoir/overflow tank
Inverter Coolant reservoir tank
Brake Fluid reservoir tank
Engine oil dipstick
Windshield washer fluid tank

I can't tell you how many posters come here complaining of things that these reservoir tanks support and they never even spend 10 seconds lifting the hood and checking them. They drive straight to the dealer and then suspect they are being hoodwinked. Or go through the trouble of finding this site and joining and posting and never open there hood.
I don't know...is it a generational thing?

My point is if the Engine coolant water pump is going bad it is weeping/leaking coolant. Over a long time. A quick check of the Engine Coolant overflow tank tank over time will tell you if the coolant is slowly dropping. That means there is a coolant leak somewhere. Coolant does not evaporate. It will eventually all leaks out.
Until one day you take a long and important trip and guess what happens. There is no dash temp gauge in the Prius. It has an overheat idiot light but by the time that lights you are way overheated to the point of damage.

The other most common issue in a Prius is the Inverter coolant pump goes bad. Stops pumping and overheats the Inverter & trans. Really common. A casual look into the reservoir checking for pump movement in ready once in a while will save you a break down on the side of the road and or possibly destroying the Inverter. That's around $4000. The pump health is easily tracked.

Everytime you fill up open the hood. Check the oil dipstick. Look at the engine coolant overflow tank level and look at the Inverter coolant reservoir level. They should all be at the max fill line and shouldn't move over time. They are extremely informative and will save you hundreds of dollars.

I timed it the other day and from getting out of the car and checking all I have listed and then dropping the hood and getting back in the car took 44 seconds. And I'm old.

 

The 2G North American Prius has four coolant pumps: engine coolant, inverter coolant, coolant heat recovery system, heater core.

So the first question is what pump are you talking about. For our discussion, I assume that you are talking about the engine coolant pump since that will develop seepage at the pump shaft seal. If that pump is leaking, a pinkish residue can be seen where fluid has leaked out. This residue may be deposited on the pump pulley and on the air conditioner compressor located below the pump.

If the engine coolant pump has a serious leak, you would expect that the fluid container located behind the radiator will have a low fluid level.

I suggest that you ask to be shown the pump which is leaking, and the residue from the leak. I also suggest that you identify the "coolant thing" that you mentioned. Get a written quote that details what will be done.

If you are not able to obtain this or feel uncomfortable getting this information, then I suggest you obtain a second quote from a Toyota dealer in your area (or an independent who specializes in Toyota hybrids, in the unlikely event that one exists in your locale.)

As Ed has suggested, you should become familiar with the various fluid containers in the engine compartment and periodically check the fluid levels. This may help you to avoid a situation where you are stuck on the side of the road, wondering why your car has failed.