91 Ls400 Water Pump/ Water Pump Housing?

[ashleyforest]

I feel like I keep pouring water down the drain lately on my 91 LS400- which I do not want to part with because I inherited it from my grandfather. I just paid some guy $850 to replace my starter and now my water pump is supposedly bad and he wants another $700 to fix that. Please let me know if this is even remotely close to right.

[1990LS400]

According to the maintenance schedule for your 91 LS400, the timing belt is to be replaced every 90,000 miles or 6 years - whichever comes first. Normally the water pump, idlers, tensioner and other small parts are replace when the timing belt is replaced.

If your water pump is leaking, it is a sign that it will likely eventually fail. The water pump on the 90 LS I drove for many years gave me only a few seconds before it failed - I smell coolant and then it seized taking the timing belt with it.

The good news is that no damage will be done if the water pump fails and damages the timing belt as long as you stop immediately and have the car towed.

To answer your original question, yes, $700 is reasonable for replacing the water pump. If the timing belt and the other items I mentioned have not been replaced recently, they should be replaced too - total cost will probably be around $1,000.

[Daniel091]

Does 700.00 include all of the above parts? If so, very good deal.