Postby blink32 » Thu Sep 04, 2008 5:23 pm
The easy question, Do you REALLY need to replace all those parts.
In a one word answer, NO. But you would be a complete FOOL not to. The water pump should always be replaced when a timing belt change/fix is done (when applicable) as cheap insurance. It'd be a world of suck if you paid a minimum of a few hundred bucks to change the timing belt just to have the water pump start pissing 5k miles later and have to pay the same price for a mechanic to go back into the exact same area.
On the hard question about the price. To me $1000 is way too much. But the service writer is "hiding" more charges in there. Figure $150 for the primary parts, $395 for the 5 hrs labor, then you toss in "incidentals". They have to charge for the 2 gallons of coolant they are replacing. Maybe there is a full coolant flush in there. Maybe a new radiator cap, who knows with out more info.
From your description they are probably doubling up on the time. The timing belt is one job, the water pump is another billable job. So maybe he said it would take 5 hours(the billable hours for the belt and the ACTUAL hours the job will take) but they are charging you 10 total because the pump is also a 5 hr job.