Leaking coolant

hey guys I have a 01 pre runner and noticed I started developing a leak after some detecting I traced it to coolant from the thermostat/water pump area my question is now what's more likely to be the culprit a bad thermostat or water pump? The very morning on the day I encountered the problem I noticed my heater wasn't putting out hot air I usually run it for about 10 min to warm up my engine and head home from work any way thanks for any help guys

 

Water pump is more likely to leak. Your lack of heat is because of the lack of coolant

 

A bad thermostat wont cause a leak, tho it could be coming from the thermostat housing. The more likely culprit is the water pump though. how many miles on the truck? ever had the timing belt or water pump replaced?

 

Truck has circa 160 thousand only 10 from me don't know if either has been replaced

 

Yea it's probably the water pump then... It's always recommended to change out the timing belt while you're in there too.

 

Yep water pump. Do the whole shabang. There's a timing belt water pump kit on eBay all genuine parts. Not too bad a job. Was overwhelming at first. Hardest part was the damn crank bolt. And juggling the ac compressor out of the way. Other than that it's pretty straight forward. Do it asap!! You do not want that pump locking up. Trust me

 

Here's the kit I got. Comes with new drive belts too. Which are nicer than aftermarket for sure. There's other kits as well with different combinations of parts as a kit if you don't want the belts..
http://pages.ebay.com/motors/link/?nav=item.view&id=180729034728&alt=web

Edit: assuming yours is 3.4....

 

That's the same kit I used

 

It says he's away till the 23rd though and may be a delay.. Not sure if u should wait or not. There's other kits though. Might be ok for another week or two. Unless its leaking pretty good... I can't remember how long shipping took. Don't think it was long. But he may be backed up when he gets back. Idk.. There's other kits though. But get the genuine oem stuff. Good prices there.

 

How much does the stealership usually charge for a WP and TB change? Mine was done at 56k, I'm close to 156k now.

 

I'm not sure and can't remember what others were saying they got it done for. But it was a lot. I wanna say 5-6 hundred. And that was strictly just the pump and timing belt iirc. Nothing else. Something like that anyways.

 

Not necessarily the water pump itself leaking...the gasket material that seals the water pump to the block has sprung a leak. You can't repair that without taking the entire water pump off. And at that point...you replace the entire water pump because the bearings won't last much longer.

Here's a writeup on a water pump replacement on a 96 3.4L
http://www.lieblweb.com/waterpump.html

 

Is that kit legit OEM? Ebay seems to have become the new Chinese trading port from what I hear

 

Yea it's legit OEM Toyota parts. At least from that seller (Aircabinman). I can't comment on other sellers but the parts I received from him were legit.

 

very cool thank you sir