60K maint, Timing belt/water pump repl on just bought used car

[rseth12312]

Hi Folks,
I just bought a used 98 Acura integra LS with 69K miles. There was no 60K service done on the car by the previous owner. During the pre-purchase inspection spark plugs, cap and rotor were found to be very old: Timing belt/Water pump are original. Car was sold as certified pre owned car at ~40K miles so it must had been well-tuned at that point. There is not much record of maintenance after that.

o The acura-honda specialist shop where used car pre-purchase inspection was done, is asking $450 for 60K maintenance. 60 k mile maint includes:
- Engine oil and filter replace : (Done recently by the prev owner)
- Transmission fluid replace
- Radiator coolant replace
- Air cleaner element replace
- Fuel filter replace
- Spark plugs, platinum plugs replace
- Distributor cap and rotor replcae
- Brake fluid replace
- Adjust valve clearance.
60k maint by him also includes inspecting many sundry things, such as adjusting parking brakes, inspecting clutch release arm, balancing tires, adjusting rear brakes etc, but I guess thats just overkill after a decent pre-purchanse inspection that cost 90 bucks.
I am wondering if I really need to get all the above mentioned replacements done? Is the price he quoted for the above mentioned maint OK? How early should I get the above maint done?
If i ask for just the above mentioned replacements and not the whole 60K pacakage (that includes inspection of various components and also above mentioned adjustments on top of above mentioned replacements), would it cut the cost?

o I also read on forums on the web that its safe to get the Timing belt/water pump done around this mileage. He is quoting me $650 for that ( i am guessing it also includes some other belts that should be changed with timing belt and water pump). From the forums, I gathered that one should be able to save some money by combining 60 K maint with TB/water pump replace as it duplicates the filling and bleeding the cooling system and adjustment of valve timings. Is that right? How much should the saving be?
Any general advice is highly appreciated.. I dont know much about cars, and dont want to get something done thats not really required.

Thanks.

[gsr916]

water pump definitely does not need to be replaced at 60k. Get everything else done u listed, your car will love you for it. Your timing belt probably has a little more life, but you might want to have your mechanic check it (and other belts as well). $450 sounds about right to me for parts and labor.

[knorwj]

definitely do the timeing belt if it goes so does your engine. and since its only 4 more bolts to do the water pump do that as well. other than that its just normal maintenance stuff as usual.

[gsr916]

You can but water pumps last quite a bit longer than 60K. its up to you.

[p0wered_by_acura]

u should definitely do the maintainance considering u just bought it and dont know much about it...get it check so u can fix any problems that it may have...better to fix it early than to have it blow up later

[knorwj]

think about it you have it all apart and everything anyway for another 40 bucks do you really want to risk the waterpump breaking down in like 10-20k miles and overheating your engine or possibly being stranded somewhere? believe me its not fun and it is quite easy to put on, it'll only take about 5 minutes more than doing a timeing belt alone.

[danielsmi]

I just had the almost the same thing done to my car. I just bought a 96 LS auto with 79k back in august and in sept I had the Timing belt, drive belts, water pump, alignment check, tranny, coolant, and oil change (switched to synthetic oil), I also had an engine leak so they changed the cam and crank seals. This all ran me 922.94 with just over 7 hours of labor $496 in labor and 366.56 in parts, plus I got my fuel filter changed last week and that was $50. Don't pay a mechanic to change the air filter that's something you can easily do yourself it's the simplist thing you can do to your car don't pay someone $60 and hour to do it for you.

Daniel Smith