So I rented a stall last week and went to work on the car. Bottom line, this car is being a pain in the rear. I wasn't able to get the thermostat out so I'm taking it to a shop after the 1st. Would it be a good idea to have the waterpump changed along with the thermostat? I was just thinking if they can do both of them together and save a few hours of work it'd save me alot. There's only 1 shop out here that'll touch a porsche and they charge like $65 an hour for labor alone.

Uncle Sam needs to give me a raise.

 

Yea, it would be prudent to change the water pump at the same time. Judging by how difficult this job is (in the car) and PorscheDoc's answer above, the mechanic would opt to take the pump off to change the thermostat anyway, so the labour costs would be the same as changing the pump! They would probably want to change the belts also!

 

Errr, was just looking at the cost for a water pump... definatly not going to save much money there. I can't believe what I've found, the one's I've been looking at are $250-300. I guess I'll just have to wait to change the water pump.

 

Is that before tax? I've just had a look at my old reciept for the work on my S2 and the pump cost me £205.63 (including tax) which converts to about $344.00 at todays exchange rates. So your quoted price doesn't sound to bad.

My total costs (INCLUDING TAX @ 17.5%) where....

...WATER PUMP (S2) £205.63
THERMOSTAT £11.52
WATER PUMP TAKE OFF ELBOW £7.99
CAM BELT (S2) £29.14
CRANKSHAFT SEAL FRONT £9.87
O RING FOR CRANK £4.44
OIL PUMP DRIVE £37.37
ANTI-FREEZE £8.82
LABOUR (7 HOURS) £312.55

TOTAL COST £627.33 (about $1052.66)

Note; This work was carried out by an independent Porsche specialist.

 

Book time on the pump is 10 hours, so expect to pay up to that to have it swapped out. You also want to do the front seals while you are in there, which adds another 2 hours or so. Front end job on these cars is not cheap to pay someone. 65 bucks an hour is very reasonable though.