I have a 1992 Pontiac Sunbird LE. It has 4 cyl. and it has 98,000+ miles on it. I took it in to get the oil changed and they inspected the car for a noise it was making. Found out the water pump was gone and the timing belt was worn. Need replacement on both. They quoted me 670.00 for the repair! STEEP! The part should cost about 20.00 max. How do I replace the water pump myself? And the timing belt? Do I need special tools? If I can't do it pretty easily myself, how much should I pay for the repair? I'm not made of money, but I need my car to run to get me to work everyday! I can't afford much, so anything around 200-300 is probably the most I can spend on the repair. What should I do?
The best thing you could do is maybe run to a library and they might have a Chiltons or Haynes repair manual you can make some copies of, check it out and decide for yourself, but a timing belt is a pretty involved process, not so much for a water pump.
On okorder , your timing belt with cost $15.99 and your water pump will cost $35.19 for a new one. Keep in mind that most shops charge more than that as this is how they make a profit. Depending on what their labor charge is, that doesn't sound too far out of line. I just did a timing belt and water pump on a Chrylser with a 3.5 today and it cost about $600 to do that. The water pump on your car is driven by the timing belt and is not an easy task to accomplish if you have no idea what you are doing. You can easily destroy this engine. If you are not sure how to replace an air filter, this would definately be out of range.
