97 Trooper - Mechanic says waterpump needs to be replaced and cv joints are bad

[gtarjohn]

To make a long story short...my 97 trooper has 90K miles...it's been leaking coolant...while crawling under the vehicle I discovered both outer boots were torn. I took it to a mechanic and he said the leak is from the water pump...he recommended changing the timing belt along with the water pump...he's quoting me $500 for the belt/pump replacment. Is this too much??? Also...on the CV joints...he's recommending replacing the axles...at least the left one...he says it's dry. He said, if he could do it, it would run about $800. He stated that he can't do it (not enough time - too busy - understaffed) and recommended taking it to a dealer. I can find aftermarket rebuilt axles for around $100. What ya'll think I should do?

Thanks,

John

[mrmax13]

I guess you don't want to do the job yourself. New parts for the tb and the water pump will run you around $100 together. It's a pretty labor intensive job so $400 more for the labor is probably about right. While they're in there, they will probably also sell you some other stuff that you may or may not need at 90k miles.

I'm not sure about the other stuff, but $800 sounds a little spendy to me. I just had a VW dealer quote me about $200 per cv on my wife's 02 passat. Do you notice a vibration or ticking from the cv? You may just need new boots and grease.

You have a lot of miles left on that vehicle.

[Ramblin Fever]

Also do the timing belt tensioner otherwise it will fail with a new belt installed.

Experiencing the same thing myself right now, was quoted $900 for pump, belt and tensioner - you got a good deal.