This man has a conscience; he actually feels bad for the customer and he's frustrated with himself that something like this could happen. What's wonderful about this situation is that he's taking full responsibility for the part failure and he's making good on it. He's right; sometimes parts fail or have some sort of defect or design flaw. Regardless, this man is a credit to his profession; if I resided anywhere near his business, I would most definitely bring my Toyota Rav4 hybrid to his shop for maintenance and other repairs once the factory warranty is expired.
Great video, that could have ended badly with the customer losing all the coolant and severe engine damage. I like the way you take care of the customer. Well done.
You are an honest man, and a great mechanic. Thank you for sharing your experience with this. Many of us appreciate your straightforward advice and knowledge of the Toyotas. Have a great day my friend.
Things like this happen from time to time. It's how you deal with it that matters. I'm about to do a full kit on my Tundra again, and I'm not looking forward to it, but the piece of mind will be worth it.
Was the timing kit and water pump from the toyota dealership parts dept or after market from napa auto parts but yes silicon grease works great use it for all my o rings for my pool pump motor and seals. But its nice that you going to fix asap because your the type of gentlemen who won't fall asleep the whole night because it will bother you well done great video👌👏
My same concern: After Market or OEM Toyota, kit. I had thought the damaged O ring seemed a shade larger than the original. But that is difficult to confirm from my arm-chair.
O rings should never be used for large hot pipes. They should go back to proper gaskets that has worked for 100s of years. Praise the Lord for honest mechanics like you Peter. 👍👍🙏🙏
It seems to be a real design issue. But I agree on the gasket vs O ring. Just a odd WP design and placement of Outlet and Inlet ports. That block is iron. Is the WP as well? I still have my parts out in the garage, I want to have a closer look later today.
Watching this makes me reconsider attempting a timing belt job on my third gen. That you posted something that was a negative adds value to all your videos.
I need one on my 1st gen, but even the Haynes Manual says to not even try, unless you really are skilled enough. Sounds like advising against DIY surgery.
Many o-ring lubricant suggestions here ... liquid dish soap, silicone, dielectric, white lithium, and Toyota O-ring grease. My question is ... what do the instructions say to use? I worked in a hydraulic component overhaul shop for over 20 years and learned that using the wrong lube is asking for trouble. My experience was to carefully follow the published guides. Where no specific lube was directed to use on o-rings - then use the lube the component was designed to use. In this case - coolant/antifreeze. It has a certain lubricity to it ... can take the heat ... and doesn't contaminate the system. On a side note: most o-rings in our shop specifically called for the use petrolatum (Vaseline). We stepped outside the box thinking silicone would be even better. Wrong! The customers started complaining about clogged filters and when we sent the filters out for diagnosis the findings were that they were clogged with microscopic silicone balls! Back to petrolatum and the problems disappeared.
Great video. Been there myself. Sometimes no matter how careful you are an install goes bad for one reason or another. I like how you care for and treat your customers. If I lived closer I would have you service my newer vehicles.
I wish there were more people like you. You are taking care of the issue with no excuses, no finger pointing and with as much haste as possible. If I lived close enough, I would take my car to you.
Thanks for sharing the lesson with us. I encountered two similar situations due to my own negligence. The first was a seal on a thermostat that I tightened without noticing a rubber O-ring was loose and partially out, so coolant leaked on the spot. The second was the valve cover gasket again loose and partially coming out of the grove when I mounted it but failed to check it until the following day. I did both jobs before and was overly confident. My solution is to use silicone grease as temporary 'glue' to make the rubber gasket / seal stay.
Peter, Enjoy your Toyota work, I work on almost every brand. Your a great teacher.... I just had this same type of return failure. Maybe 8 weeks ago. The vehicle went out for seven days and started to loose coolant. When I removed the leaking new waterpump the new oring was compressed with signs of leaking. No torn oring? Take a close look at the oring diameter opening on the failed waterpump? Use magnified eyes with light! Since it is aluminum my failed return waterpump was slightly dented. And out of round just enough to leak! When I examined the area where the oring compressed down around the pipe you will see the taper for the oring. And may see the “Flat Dent or crush” area where the waterpump assembly was apparently crushed or dropped. Making the diameter of the opening just a bit out of round........no oring will seal or work! When my my parts supplier sent a second kit, it had the same crush area. I sent the new kit back. And ordered from another supplier! The third kit was fine! To me it seems to be a build flaw or maybe a shipping damage problem. The pumps rolls around inside of the kit boxes! Maybe they are dropped But to have two with the same flaw? I need to play the lottery! Good luck
You are one rare mechanic. So many others would be offering a number of excuses as to why it leaked. That quality is hard to find nowadays in a mechanic/technician.
Thank you for Sharing that. I will be doing this job next week on my 04 4runner and have been researching. Sounds like you are a hard working and honest individual. Keep up the great work!
You’re are such an honest and ethical person Peter to post this. That is such a tough job. I wish I was close enough to bring in my daughter’s Matrix for a complete check up.
oh god, I feel your pain man. it looks as if water pump casting was just ever so slightly off or something to cause just a slight misalignment. Thanks for showing us this issue. Best of luck!
I have always worried about this situation. I have done literally 100 of these . I always use rubber grease and install water pump to this boring first as you push on pump .
Welcome to the club! Same thing happened to me. When I installed it, I thought the O-ring installed a little lose but I buttoned everything up anyway. Bad choice! And its hard to tell if it seats correctly, you just cross your fingers. Nothing like starting it up for the first time and there is a water fall of anti freeze pouring down!
You are a good man my friend. When my truck is ready for a timing belt I am bringing it to you. I live in SLC UT. But to me it would be worth it to me to have you do the job. See you soon.
Lithium grease is good when you have hard plastic parts working on metal parts, ex metal screw in teflon nut, it doesn't attack or swell the plastic, but it may deteriorate rubberised materials.
Difficult situation and I've been there myself. I usually lube O-rings with silicone plumbing grease to assist with installation and sealing. I feel for you and also learned my lesson the hard way.
That’s what I was thinking about using silicone grease. Peter said he was going to use dish soap as a lubricant and I’m sure it would work but the install should be done quickly so the soap doesn’t have time to dry out. And cause the o ring to not slide into place.
Owning up to your mistake and actually filming it takes balls. Much respect to you and I hope your claim goes through and you get paid the 8 hours for this job.
@@monkmodemalik8225 it is a bad design. But there is a right and wrong way to install it. Therefore it was a mistake. Which is unfortunate for him because I do believe he is a great Toyota tech but nobody is perfect and I respect that he has the balls to make such a video. I’m sure there aren’t many guys out there willing to show people jobs that have come back. So mad respect to this man.
Love my 2006 4runner 4x4 V8. Sad to learn that it has such weakness in water pump instal. Glad that I always let the dealer deal with it. Have not had a problem 210K miles..
I think the problem was the bad quality of the O ring, but grease always helps Last month I did the same job on same car, already passed 5 weeks with not problem, hopefully coontinues like that Thanks for posting man as ppreciated
I did this same exact job for a Lexus GX470 a few months ago and remember going through the same thoughts and worrying about that blind o-ring. The method I used was to apply force only at the point where the o-ring was located and only proceeded once I felt it seat. Don't even think about using the flange bolts to seat the pump and o-ring as this will surely cause damage to the o-ring.
You might want to try some Parker O-Lube to lubricate the o-ring. A tube will last very nearly forever. I commend you on showing the good and bad of being a tech. I hope your customer watched this. They are blessed with an honest mechanic, something that is sadly hard to find in our world. All the best to you and yours!
Thanks for sharing the nightmare. I have never seen an o ring shred like that in such an application. Defective manufacturing possible cause. (incomplete vulcanization)
It's good to see an honest mechanic, the dealership allways tries to charge you for their mistakes and it's up to you to be vigilant and call them out, but they usually negotiate once you call them out.
What a bummer. I like messing around and doing my own repairs, but any job over 3 hours annoys me. An 8 hour redo would kill my attention span for a month.
Oh my friend. 2008 Lexus GX 470 and the exact same thing happened to me. I was trying to line up the water pump and had to pull it back out just half an inch and put it back in and I never gave that O-ring a second thought. I gave it lots of thought when it started to leak and I had to trace back. I ended up taking the intake off and while I was at it I was able to loosen up that metal tube, replace the O-ring and fix it. I also replaced the one coolant hose in the valley that was hard as a rock. Probably should’ve done the starter while I was at it.
Excellent vlog Peter as always and very interesting, I’m no expert but I’m wondering would it be ok to put some loctite 55 in front of or behind the o ring. It looks like tooth floss but I’ve used it on threads on my radiators and it’s a godsend no leaks at all. All the best and stay safe Mark from Billericay in the U.K. 🇬🇧👍
I literally just put the water pump on my 2005 Toyota Sequoia a couple of days ago… Fingers crossed that I don’t have this problem. Thanks for the heads up
You can use vegetable oil on the seal or any rubber seal or bushing as a lubricant as it doesn't swell or affect rubber like petroleum based products do.
I did the exact same job on my wife’s GX-470. I used it as an excuse to buy 2 new torque wrenches. The timing belt kit was really convenient. Came with all the parts needed. I took my time and spent just a few hours a day on it. About 14 hours total. Not really a hard job, but a long a long one. Lots of parts to remove. I wouldn’t want to do it again so soon after the first time.
Thank you for the video. Getting ready to change the timing belt on an 05 tundra with 160k miles that has never been changed. I also agree soap is the best lubricant.
I encountered a similar situation doing a timing belt on my 1990 Mitsubishi Montero with the 3.0L V6. There is a coolant tube with an O-ring that connects to the water pump. Like the Toyota you cannot see if it goes in properly. The last person who replaced the water pump used a little RTV gasket maker around the O-ring as an extra precaution. I didn't use gasket maker but just lubed the O-ring with coolant. No leaks but it looks like a weak point for leaks.
Happened to me on my 03 sequoia. Only much faster. While I was filling the coolant it was streaming out on that spot. Pretty frustrating knowing you have another 6-8 hours of labor ahead of you.. now I know i should feel the o ring gasket “lock” into place, rather than just snugging it up.
What an unfortunate mess. I did mine in 2014 and it's still holding, but I don't remember that small O ring. The job took me 10 hours and I don't envy anyone this task.
We had a lot of failures of this same repair in my Dealership. It was due to the source of the water pump had changed . The machined part on the water pump was cutting the o-ring . After we sourced a different water pump the problem was resolved. Sometimes you can lube the o-ring and do everything right and it still comes back . It can happen to any of us
IBefore I purchased a toyota.... I wonder what was involed in the goofy belt replacement.. NOW I know..and have written off a Toyota product that requires belt/replacement... Thank You. One 10 cent "0" ring defective and a big expensive job down the tubes. I thought Japanese engineers would have been smarter when designing "maintainability". Another great video..
It's nice to see a good mechanic taking ownership of his work both good and bad. Those O rings do require a lubricant in order to go on properly. However, it would be wise to take a dial micrometer and measure the inside diameter (ID) of the bore in which that O ring resides. I have found that many after market items, such as this water pump, can have an ID that is smaller than the factory one. It's just from poor casting and low quality. I have learned the hard way that on most Toyota engines it is better to spend the few extra dollars for factory original parts instead of using after market parts. I've had to eat several Toyota engines because the after market parts were not quite the same as the originals. Now, I measure EVERYTHING AND DO SO TWICE! I've found many after market parts that were way of and could have cost me more engines. Therefore, for anything such as water pumps, oil pumps, cam followers and so on, I just get the factory parts. I've had no issues since adopting that course of action. It's the same old story of you get that for which you pay. If you pay a junk price then you get junk parts.
You might try Molykote Dc33 light. It’s buna safe silicone lube and works well for o-rings. I would lightly coat the o-ring, the pipe and the hole. Should work a treat.
This would have been a good time to use a Stant 30 lb Pressurized Cooling System Tester. Just connect it to the radiator and pump it up. Watch the gauge to see if pressure decays. Use it anytime the coolant system has been opened. Can also check the pressure cap for leaks and if the relief valve relieves. Pressure caps are pretty cheap and can burst these new radiators easy if the relief fails to relieve. People tend to wait till the radiator blows at the seams and blame the radiator when it was a faulty cap not relieving.
I have a 2005 GX470 that I just bought about two months ago and I wish so much that I could bring it to you for the maintenance and repairs now and in the future
I was wondering maybe silicone on that O ring I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed so I could be very wrong it's a lot of work for that timing belt I feel your pain and frustration
did he say an 8 hour job!? I guess on a Toyota it only needs doing every 200k miles. It doesn't take 8 hours on a Subaru, but gets done twice as many times ;-)
With that situation, it might be a good idea to throw a pressure test on the cooling system before buttoning it back up to expose any possible leaks from that o ring.
great video and channel. Could some type of water soluble adhesive be used to hold o ring in groove during assembly, offers little more hold than grease and can still use soap, or couple drops of super glue maybe? spit balling
Wow, so sad! After looking at the water pump design where the pipe was installed, I would agree, its a poor design. Just wondering what was the mileage on this truck. Also is the V6 design similar? Thank you for sharing, you are one of the few technicians who truly cares about their customers.
Peter you are so lucky you can claim the labour, there is no way our parts supplier would cop that over here in Australia 🇦🇺 they would say you pinched the seal on install your fault no clam possible. I do feel for you I had this happen also.
Peter, have you considered doing a cooling system pressure test before proceeding with the rest of the install? It may be the confirmation you are looking for.
I’m in the middle of one now... never had this happen but it’s a real bummer when you do things the right way and take pride in your work and things like this still happen. Thanks for the heads up!
Got a change coming up in about 10,000 miles. I will be thinking about this the whole time. I may seat the pump and remove once or twice to insure no damage done.
