Hello,


I recently had to drop $1100 to replace ignition coils, plugs, and a MAF sensor on my 09....car stalled and I couldnt get it home for diagnosis so I have to bnd over and take it from a dealership. Boy they took!

this was money I has saving for shock replacements and to replace the water pump and belt tensioner.


Can I replace a water pump and tensioner myself? If so I would like to request advice and help from anyone who can help. Dealership makeup is ridiculous on parts and even when I tell them about Bernardi's prices they sit there saying they cant get the parts at those prices (wtf!!)

what special tools would I need (if any) and besides the parts, are there any other parts I should replace as part of this project?


Thanks in advance for your help

 

Are the pump and/or tensioner going bad? There's not a whole lot of reason to change those before they fail, as the replacements could have a shorter lift than the original ones.

 

Your car should still be under warranty. Why are you paying for the repairs?

 

$1100 seems awfully high...you should have done the maf, coils, and plugs by yourself...they are as simple as it gets. The pump and tensioner IMO are better left to the pros.

It's sad say but the days of a $50 repair are looooong gone. So when we as customers walk into a 45000 square foot dealership it's best we all realize that they afforded that complex with high high high profits....sorry for the short rant!

 

I have 63.6k miles so I'm out of warranty, and used my goodwill warranty back at 40k when the fan blower went out.

I wish I could have done it myself...parts from bernardi would have come out to 500 while the dealership charged 660, labor was 400....

thats if I couldnt avoid the whole thing by just cleaning the MAF sensor. unfortunately my car had stalled on the highway and was stuck in a truck stop. Towing home from there would have killed whatever savings I could have had doing it myself.

Also I couldnt wait the days it would take to ship the parts.

The tensioner and water does seem straightforward . Only thing I would have to get is a proper torque wrench and be willing to spend time to make sure everything is proper. I can order the parts and have them on hand for when I feel like doing the repair.

malraux thanks for the info. what signs should I look for to know they are failing without then failing on me?

 

What makes you think that you need a water pump and tensioner? Did the dealer say something to you? Are there symptoms?

 

The car will drive you home without a MAF sensor, the maf sensor did not cause the stall. I've driven the fit with no MAF sensor at all. Also, I wouldn't recommend it, but 3 cylinders will drive you home too so that rules out coil pack (you will know darn well when it is a coil pack). A water pump would not cause it to stall either. You are getting shafted, I got a whole new engine with 18k and ALL the sensors, + coil packs and plugs, throttle body, oil pan, timing chain cover guide etc. for $500. Hell I have 4 extra coil packs I would have sold you for $100 shipped. I even have an extra chain tensioner and water pump I'd sell you for $100 if you really think you need one, but you don't need them so why waste your money?

 

63K miles, and you needed all of those parts already? I find that really hard to believe. What kind of driving do you do mostly?

 

For the drive belt, is the pulley making funny noises? Does the belt squeal when running? You can also go through the full inspection criteria from the service manual.

For the water pump, is it leaking? Are your temps getting too high? Do the bearings inside sound wrong?

In general, for both of those parts, I'd expect their useful life to be somewhere between 80 and 150+ thousand miles. If you replace now, without a reason, you could be shortening the time between replacements. The only reason to preventatively replace them is if you're at 100k+ and doing work in that area.

 

schoat: I have another thread here where I go into the details. Trust me I'm not happy about it but here is the short version:

car stalled on highway, towed to nearby dealership. diagnostic codes showed random misfire in all cylinders. MAF sensor comes out covered in K&N oil though I cleaned it 2 weeks and 700 miles ago. Supposedly the sensor died and in turned send bad data to the coils which killed them as well.

With no car and no way to get around I agreed to the repair and called K&N and am dealing with their warranty and r&d departments.

 

Guess I have time to order the parts, tools and familiarize myself with the area and the procedure....good to know. Thanks!

 

None of what you described indicates a water pump or drive belt issue though. I'm still left wondering why you've decided to replace those items.

 

sorry Malraux thought I answered that:

while at the dealership they recommended replacing those items based on mileage and they were listed on the parts order form they showed me.

Since they weren't bad and since I noticed other service being recommended like a brake and power steering flush (we dont have anything to flush since we dont use steering fluid) and since I was already spending over a grand, I opted out.

I am choosing to do this on my own when the time is right because of the overall experience I had with a dealership. They will never work with you and will almost always recommend new parts even when new parts may not be needed.

Also this was a job I could have done myself had I thought to check the MAF and I feel pretty bad that I had to fork that amount of cash over.

So I want to learn how to fully maintain this car on my own and learn my car better so I dont end up at the dealership mercy again.

 

It probably derives from 60k timing belt changes. Honda always recommends changing the water pump at the same interval "while you're in there."

Of course the Fit with a timing chain and more easily accessed water pump renders this adage unnecessary. But I think that's where the feeling of needing to change it comes from.

But even on my 97 honda with a timing belt, the recommended replacement interval was 105K, not 60K (but the dealer always pushed to do it early). I did the water pump at that time too. And again at 210k...

The other issue is cartridges and shocks. I don't see changing these until 150K unless you want to upgrade to stiffer ones. But Monroe posts billboards suggesting changing them at 60K I believe.

 

In general, there's nothing wrong with saving you're money and waiting for some sign those parts are going bad. Use the savings to pay for a cab when/if the parts leave you stranded.

That at least makes some sense. When there's a huge labor cost to pull the engine apart, you're saving money vs waiting for it to go bad. Or if you regularly drove in remote areas such that you'd be in real danger if the car died.

This case, though, just sounds like a service manager wanting a boat payment.

 

I think this underlines a problem with some dealers. Don't take their word on recommended maintenance. The benefit is more to their bottom line than yours. I understand though; my wife is constantly coming home with thousands of dollars in "maintenance" receipts for her toyota and her daughter's accord. "But the dealer recommended it! They wouldn't do that if the car didn't need it!"

Read the manual and follow the manufacturer's recommendations. Where there are none, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. It's not like we're flying these things.

 

It was likely your MAF. Even if it had been a coil, it would have been an easier DIY. A can of MAF cleaner is $10, or carb cleaner that works in an extreme pinch is $5.

It's not like parts for these cars are available at every parts store across the land, either.

There's no need to do the water pump or belt tensioner unless they're broken, or have other extenuating circumstances. Not unless the timing belt drives the waterpump, which it does not on an L15A7.

 

Continue with this method letting the dealer decide what repairs and when they're needed and you'll stay broke as pointed out in the thread title.

 

I'm still scratching my head at this. Your MAF sent bad data to the coils? Thats not how it works.

My guess, your MAF was bad causing the computer to either lean the mixture out too much, or dump too much fuel. Either way it could have cause the engine to stall, and ruin your spark plugs. The coils were probably fine.

 

Thanks for all the info. I wish I hadn't stalled where I did with no sleep. Otherwise I would have attempted to do it myself. Unfortunately I was stuck at 6am at a truck stop on the side of a busy highway (,NJ 1/9) I really do think the plugs might have kicked it (the looked really worn).

I kept the coils because I figure they're still good. After its done with KN I'll clean up the maf and keep it on standby. I'll also clean up the filter and reinstall it later.

Too bad I could limp the car back to a pepboys...everytime I hit the gas it would stall out.

Hope this story helps others. T
ry to look into it yourself before going to a dealer.