Can I change just the water pump?

My water pump started leaking a good bit recently. Perhaps 0.5L for each hour of driving. My timing belt has another 50k left on it so I'm hoping I can just change the water pump (or maybe just the seal). Looking at it, it seems like it might be possible but I haven't done a timing belt on a BEW/BHW yet so I'm not sure if it's practical to do or not. Thoughts?

You certainly can. But you may want to consider the cost vs labour of doing everything in 1 go.

To do just the pump will I have the full belt exposed and ready to be changed anyways?

Yes, pretty much.

Thanks. Guess I'll replace it. Now the question is, do I go deeper and delete the BSM while I'm there...

Depends...do you wanna see first hand what it would look like to have a genade go off in your oil pan?

burn_your_money said:

Thanks. Guess I'll replace it. Now the question is, do I go deeper and delete the BSM while I'm there...

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Down the rabbit hole you go....

The parts are pretty cheap for BSM swap and you’re doing the labour. I would do it.

I've decided to just do the pump and go back in later. It doesn't seem like that much work to get to the belt anyways. Since I'm moving, time is not something I have abundance of.

burn_your_money said:

I've decided to just do the pump and go back in later. It doesn't seem like that much work to get to the belt anyways. Since I'm moving, time is not something I have abundance of.

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Have a close look at the belt and if it shows any signs of aging, throw a new one on.

Well that didn't go as planned. Someone reused some questionable bolts on the crank pulley and 3 of them stripped out on me. I was able to get 2 out fairly easily but spent 3 hours on the last one including a trip to Princess Auto to get some extractors that would fit. I removed the timing belt and all the components and found a loud idler so I bought a whole timing kit and redid the whole thing. I went ahead and replaced the alternator belt tensioner as well since it wasn't operating correctly.

I often hit limp mode on the highway with this car due to boost issues that I haven't had time to resolve yet so I decided to pull the intake off the turbo and inspect it. Turns out a bunch of sand has been getting past my air cleaner and the compressor blades are all sandblasted on the edges. I pulled the whole clean side of the airbox apart and the only thing I could find suspect was the o-ring for the MAF. I washed the pipe out and put it all back together. Hopefully that issue is fixed. I'll check on it again some time. I also redid all my vacuum lines in that area since they were right there.

I also noticed that my timing was pretty far out, like maybe 1/2 a tooth off on the crank. I did check the torsion value on this car some months ago and it was around where it's expected to be. I set it up this time so both locks go right in. The engine felt like it had more compression when I was turning it over with the ratchet so we'll see what the next few tanks yield for MPGs. I haven't rechecked torsion yet and I also put my winter tires on and did the front brakes so unfortunately there's a couple variables. I'll easily go through a tank in the next week so it shouldn't take too long to see what has changed.

My headlights are horribly too low now so I'll have to aim them again. I need to replace the driver's side housing first though because the adjuster is stripped.

This car was doing pretty good paying itself off compared to the Sienna it replaced 3 months ago but this set it back a few more months. It sure drives a lot better than that Sienna ever did though. Thanks for everyone's advice.