97' Sc300 Timing Belt/water Pump Replacement

[forrest]

My 97 SC300 has 62,500 miles and I am thinking of having the timing belt changed. Do I have to change the water pump also?

Is this a real tough job ? I would like to take it to a independent mechanic and not a dealership. Thanks

[OGY]

My 97 SC300 has 62,500 miles and I am thinking of having the timing belt changed. Do I have to change the water pump also?

Is this a real tough job ? I would like to take it to a independent mechanic and not a dealership. Thanks

If you are already changing the timing, you might as well do it. Just make sure that you inform the shop that you have an "Interference engine" so they know what it entails

[jbarhorst2]

I don't believe the '97 SC300 is an interference engine.

This is before the VVTi.

Tom

[jj17]

My 97 SC300 has 62,500 miles and I am thinking of having the timing belt changed. Do I have to change the water pump also?

Is this a real tough job ? I would like to take it to a independent mechanic and not a dealership. Thanks

I just had my timing belt replaced by an independent shop. I asked the service advisor about the water pump when he wrote me up. He said they would inspect it and would only recommend replacing it if it looked bad. When I picked up the car thay said the pump was fine and does not need replacement. The advisor said something like the Lexus (Toyota) water pump seldom goes bad at 120k miles.

[loco_ese]

I would suggest that you get a true, Toyota belt and not a Napa, Autozone, etc belt. The Toyota belt is a few dollars more and you can get it from the Toyota dealership since it shares the same engine as the N/A Supra; I saved $11.00 dollars. Now, based on MY experience, I could not for the life of me remove the bottom crankshaft pulley bolt even after my last ditch effort of ghetto-fying the removal by doing the starter bump; it still didn't work. I had the same Toyota dealership that I bought the belt from do the timing belt replacement (and they installed my new crankshaft pulley since my old one sheared off into two pieces on the highway two weeks prior). As for replacing the waterpump and knowing how expensive they are I would feel that you could wait until the next time you change the timing belt. Just do a complete cooling system flush (make sure you also turn on your heater to remove the old coolant that is in your heater core), replace the thermostat with a new one and burp the system.