Some of the 5th gens are getting up there in age and mileage. My question is do we have a feel for when it might be good to swap out a water pump (and thermostat)? I have a 2016 with 110k miles (I do about 30k miles/yr) and I have a couple very long drives planned this year, including one cross country trip from West Virginia to Oregon this September. I'm all about staying on top of PM... but for the more experienced than me, is that something we should consider PM? Ultimately, I'm trying to find that happy medium between swapping out parts that don't need to be swapped and breaking down in western Nebraska 150 miles from anywhere.

Typically with a WP on any other vehicle I have ever had, they will weep or squeak for a while before they completely let go. This gives you plenty of heads up.

My 2012 has 145k and I've never done it.

I'm not sure I'd worry about it in absence of running hot, weeping or sqeaking.

As far as the thermostat goes, most are designed to fail open. So that won't leave you totally stranded either. You just might not have much heat and it may never quite reach full operating temperature until it's replaced.

If you are looking to do them for peace of mind alone, sure go for it.

in the 17 Toyota trucks I have owned and who knows how many hundreds of thousands of miles drive I have changed one water pump. And it was purely preventative at almost 200k miles on a 00 4Runner. I was doing the timing belt and it's right there. Very different from the BMW's I have owned where anything over 60k is a gamble.

Isn't this on the list in the manual?

It seems like every godamn thing that could wear out is on my wife's 2018 Acura TLX SHAWD and her car before, a 2003 Honda Civic, was there.

We did the timing belt and the water pump at the same time on the Civic. The drivers side door lock wore out before the belt or pump did.

Like everyone said, don't worry about the WP until it makes some noise or leaks. I'm on the original WP on my 03 with 255k miles.

Where is the water pump located on the engine? I Googled it but get a bunch of crap, ads and no answer. I assume somewhere within the engine block, like that on my old 2002 Tacoma TRD V6. On that truck, it was recommended changing the water pump with the timing belt at the 90,000k service intervals, a good preventative maintenance item since everything was torn open and exposed.

I used to have a 2006 Honda CR-V that also had a timing chain. I traded it in on my current 2012 Subaru Outback with 150,000k and never had any issues.

A buddy of mine also had a Tacoma TRD and had his timing belt changed shortly after I had mine done. He was a cheapskate and adamantly told the dealer not to change it out. He saved about $200 off the price of the service and he was quite pleased with himself. For about three months. When the water pump went south. Then he had to shell out $1200 to change it out.

do keep up w/ your coolant changes to ensure max water pump life. Even the slightest bit of lubrication from fresh fluid will help keep things chuggin along for a long time.

Leave it until it leaks out of the weep hole. It just went out on my 2006 GTO with 60K miles.

Since the pump is driven off of the timing belt, it's cheaper to replace it while you're in there instead of having to pay labor to get back in there.

I'm on my 7th Toyota totaling close to 1.5 million miles. That's an average of over 200,000 miles per vehicle. I've only replaced a water pump once and that was preventive maintenance, NOT a failure, and only because the timing belt was being replaced which made wp replacement easy.

If your that worried, Just buy a new Water Pump, Gasket and a belt to take with you.
That way if your in" No-where Nevada" at least you won't have to wait for the parts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFLp7kLH198&feature=youtu.be

I've only heard of doing a WP as preventive maintenance if you have a timing belt that needs changed to save yourself the labor of tearing it apart twice. With this, I'd wait until it weeps

This is my personal opinion,so its not a fact. I have always used used brand new water pumps. I turned a wrench for 38 years and after some rebuilt water pump failures I learned and now with snaking belts /pulleys /accessory's needed to be taken off ..You don't need to do the job again in 6 months because you went the cheap route. My two cents

I’ve always used brand new OEM waterpumps and the OEM recommended coolant. Flushed and changed out coolant at recommended intervals. Never had any issues.

I agree. Fuel pumps and water pumps are not places to stray from OEM.