so, i haven't done waterpumps in forever, but i guess it was time.
lexus required periodic top up for the engine coolant since it was disappearing somewhere, albeit at a very very slow rate.
after the bumper-to-bumper warranty was over, i was doing oil change and notice slight pink residue around the oil filter cap;
and it finally clicked, waterpump is leaking.
did some googling, and found out it's very common issue on 2L turbo engine. (and other lexus/toyota engines too)
it never dripped on the floor, just the residue on oil filter housing before, but i guess the finally warm(er) weather made lexus relax too much. it started dripping on the floor after a drive. lexus is at 83,000 km now. i THINK it started leaking around 60,000km mark cuz that's when i started doing DIY oil/filter changes and noticed coolant disappearing very slowly.
at this point, powertrain warranty is over too, so i guess it's up to me to fix this.
ordered waterpump and accessory belt online, about $150 bucks.
went to canadian tire to pick up some coolant.
put the car on ramps i use for oil changes, and removed undertrays. these are some nice trays.
![Shocked :o](https://www.autos.ca/forum/Smileys/CarTalk/shocked.gif)
bunch of 12 mm screws, and plastic clips removed, and removed 2 trays.
located main radiator drain valve and opened it to drain. i think it drain about ~4 liters. of coolant.
removed now empty main coolant reservoir by removing couple screws and moving it out of the way. didn't need to remove hoses.
and now to get to the pump. (pic 1)
space is tight. the engine mount and various hoses, are in the way. but mainly engine mount is a gigantic pain to get around. thankful that i have dainty hands...
![Grin ;D](https://www.autos.ca/forum/Smileys/CarTalk/grin.gif)
checked the waterpump area more clearly. oh, bought a boroscope for something else a while back, but came it real handy for this (pic 2)
verified all the bolt locations, and removed accessory belt to get started on removing the waterpump bolts. was very much a pain. there are only 5 bolts, but took about 2 hours, swearing up a storm after each one was removed. 2 of them are kinda hidden behind the tension pulley. tension pulley had to be pulled back to full compression and i had to install position locking pin (i don't have such thing, so i just used small allen key.) from below the engine to get access to those bolts and i had to fiddle around in that small space a lot.
after all the bolts were successfully removed, i removed the waterpump from the area. this took a lot of tugging and wiggling as well.
but finally success. (pic 3)
CONTINUED in part 2....