When to replace parts....

The post about the water pump for me thinking.... When is it a good time to replace components on the accessory drive (ie. Alternator, water pump, power steering, etc)? How about other parts like radiator hoses, idler pulley, belt tensioner?

I replaced my AC unit and my belt tensioner already, carrier bearing, u joints all ready...

But my alternator, water pump, power steering pump, most of my wheel bearings and such are all 17 years old and have 220k+ miles on them.

What do you all think/do?

 

Long ago my dad taught me something

Noise = friction = wear.

No noise, no friction, no wear. Leave it.

The accessories will give audible warnings when its time to replace them.

 

When they break or start to show issues

 

Depends on the status of the parts and the kind of driving you do. If you routinely drive through extreme weather and terrain, makes sense to be more cautious in guarding against a failure.

But I’m also on board with the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mantra.

 

My AC and front left wheel bearing hub didn't give any noise....plus noise can slowly become incremental at times and not as noticable.

 

In that case, when it breaks

 

Changing something before it fails there's not much to go on. Noise is just a pre-indicator. Not a sure thing.

 

I'm doing a bunch of work stuff at once. I did the alternator a month ago when it was dying. AC is gone so I'll leave it till there's a noise. If there's any noise after replacing the alternator, water pump and idler pulleys I'll address those next week.

I'm not doing the head gaskets or timing as everything seems to run fine.

 

Buy a new truck - problem solved

 

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it unless it’s attached to another part that Has to be removed that is broken, lol

 

What gives my concern are the parts that will instantly fail. I agree with the comments above about waiting for certain parts to show indication of failure before thinking about them. But I've been left stranded before because an alternator failed without warning. My truck is 13 years old... I haven't got to the point yet where I am replacing major parts solely for preventative reasons, but I think about it. For me, I'll focus on parts that would prevent me from driving out of a remote area with no cell towers....alternator and hoses come to mind.

 

Aftermarket parts are ALWAYS lower quality then what you are removing. (Unless they are broken and worn out)
Toyota builds their vehicle with mostly Tier 1 parts suppliers. Aftermarket parts may be built by the same people but the quality and age of the molds and equipment is always poorer. And then you can get off brand parts which slip in quality even more. Even toyota OEM replacement parts are usually Tier 2 suppliers.

I have a buddy who works in automotive parts and has to test and inspect lots of different suppliers parts. The manufacturing experience he has and the teardowns he has done has been very interesting.

 

Had my truck in for some customer pay maintenance at the dealer last summer. Thought that it would be a good time to replace a few items and the service advisor told me that they would look it over and determine if we should do that. They actually said that if it needs it to go ahead and do it but advised against replacing stuff that wasn’t ready yet. Really appreciated that and improved my opinion of dealer service departments! (That one at least!)

 

Yeah. I had similar debate on my 2007 with 140k miles which is my DD. Should I proactively replace, water pump, hoses, radiator fan, wheel bearings, etc... Ultimately decided to just keep waiting and inspect when I do my oil changes. I think it depends a lot upon your individual circumstances and how critical the vehicle is to your daily life and your tolerance for disruption if anything fails. I've owned my taco for about 16 years as my DD and it has not left me stranded yet. To date I've done a few repairs as needed, I replaced the alternator after it started making noise, replaced cabin fan resistor after clip failed, cheap trailer brakes caused a short, replaced front struts and rear dampers, and that's pretty much it in terms of repairs. Generally everything else has just been standard maintenance/wear items.

 

Patently false - an opinion expressed as fact! I worked 15 years for a tier one supplier to Ford - the parts we supplied for their production line was the EXACT same part supplied for their dealer aftermarket sales and (by contractual agreement with Ford because we used "their" tooling) the EXACT same part we sold to NAPA, Carquest, Rock Auto etc. There may be anecdotal evidence to support your statement, but , your blanket premise is not accurate.

 

Ha... Ok.

 

I didn't say anything about the replacement parts you are using. If I replace my alternator or water pump for example, I will likely buy a direct Toyota replacement because I'd like to get 220k miles out of the next one as well.

That being said would you ever replace one that seems to be working fine based on age or mileage alone?

 

No, I would not. Even toyota OEM parts from the dealer are not always the same level of quality that you got when the truck was built. This goes back to my Tier 1 vs tier 2 suppliers comment in my post above. Sometimes they are identical, sometimes they are not.

If it ain't broke don't fix it.