2004 Toyota Highlander L4 2.4L Timing Chain Set with Water Pump DIY Solutions ETS00063

Hi, I’m Mike from 1A Auto. We’ve been selling auto parts for over 30 years!

Raise and support your vehicle, or you could do this on the ground. This vehicle is a bit higher. We need to remove this lower panel. If yours is completely intact, you'll have eight 10-millimeter bolts around the outer edge.

Up here, this bumper is broken. So these are loose. That one's broken off there. There is a push clip on either side. This one is missing, but it would look just like this one here. I'm going to start by removing the bolts. Spray a little rust penetrant in here. Use a 10-millimeter socket extension and ratchet, and just go along and remove all these bolts. This one was still connected. You're going to bolt it here. It's broken apart. I'm not going to worry about it.

The bumper is broken but the bolt is there, so I'll remove that bolt. This bolt here, same thing. Bumper's broken, but the bulk is still there holding on this front shield. Just the clip is holding the shield on now. Pop the clip out with a flat bladed screwdriver to unlock it. Sometimes, these break. This one looks brittle and discolored. It might break. If it breaks, just replace it with a new one.

Place our drain pan underneath the vehicle. Catch the coolant, then it can either be reused. If it's nice and clean or disposed of properly. Then I can remove the radiator drain. It's this white plug right here. Open it up. You don't have to take it all the way out. You can just kind of unscrew it, and it'll start to drain. It's got a little nozzle on the bottom. And then what you can do, once it starts to drain, of course, you're doing this when the vehicle is nice and cool.

You can open up the radiator cap. It'll come out faster. Use a 10 millimeter wrench to loosen this, so you remove the negative terminal. This one's a little loose, just from being rusty. If you needed to, you could use an adjustable wrench, because that would probably fit better and do the same thing. Loosen it. Once it's loose, I should be able to wiggle it. Come free, and then you can just push it aside.

The alternator is located here, from the engine, right on the top. You need to remove the belt for the pulley before you can remove the alternator from the engine. I'm going to use the serpentine belt tool to loosen the tensioner. It's not spring-loaded. It's got a shock on it. There's a 19-millimeter like welded on or it's a nut part, a hex drive that's part of the tensioner. When you pull down on this, you basically just have to slowly compress it. It's like a shock, and you can see.

So you don't pull really fast and hard, because you'll break the tab off on the tensioner. You just sort of pull gently and slowly, and you'll feel it compressed, and the belt will get looser. See how the belt's getting loose? And then you can pull it off the pulley.

If you don't have access to a serpentine belt tool, take this out of here. You can use a breaker bar, the 19-millimeter socket. I'm using a 12-point to give me a little bit more range, or you can use a large ratchet so you can have more movement. It's going to be a little bit trickier to get down here.

I'm going to feed breaker bar with the socket down in there. You've got like a bracket here and there's this brake line that comes out, and you just kind of have to be careful to not bend them too much. I'm going to do the same exact thing. Just reach in here and gently pull it, and it will compress. Got to push this out of the way a little bit. So you're pulling to the front of the engine.

I'm going to carefully put a pipe over the end of this wrench, over the end of this breaker bar, just give me some more leverage, then just gently pull down and compress the tensioner. See the belt releasing? I think that's as far as it's going to go. Reach down and lock it right off the pulley. Release the tensioner. Now, you can remove the breaker bar from the tensioner and feed the belt off the rest of the pulleys.

You need to unbolt the positive cable that goes to the alternator. It should be under a rubber cap. Just lift it up with your fingers. I'm just going to spray some rust penetrant on it. Looks a little corroded. I'm going to use a 10 millimeter socket extension and ratchet to remove it, and we'll lift it right up. Take the nut off. This harness right here should be zip-tied to this metal bracket. The zip tie is broken, so it's loose.

On our alternator, I can remove it with this bracket attached, because it's not attached to anything else. However, if your harness is zip-tied to it, still, you're going to need to remove this bracket before you take the alternator out, so just spray some rust penetrant on here. Bolt is going into the aluminum alternator, 10-millimeter bolts. That broke free pretty easily. I'll just unbolt it and pull it out of the way, otherwise it would stay zip-tied to this harness, but in ours, since it's already broken, I'm just going to take it out.

You can actually see how it works here, if you wanted to unclip it. If you wanted to unclip this while it was still in the car, I'd spray some rust penetrant in here, because these brackets are kind of rusty. Take a flat blade screwdriver, open up the tab, and then this should slide off. But again, it's pretty rusty. It might be stuck. Worst case, I just unbolt it and leave it. Not a big deal. You don't really need it.

We can put another zip tie around it from the outside. I'm not going to worry about it. Then disconnect the electrical connector. There's a lock on this side pushing in on the rubber boot. Pull it straight off. So, you're actually pushing in on this lock to open it up. Harness connects down to this bracket here. So by pushing up on the lock tab, I'm going to pop this harness mount out. This one's worn out, and I think one of the tabs is broken.

It's got a spring tab on one side and a spring tab on the other side. Yeah, it looks like it's broken. You could come in from this side and squeeze these two together with needle-nose pliers or try to do with your fingers, and it should come out of this opening. There's another harness mount that's right here on the metal bracket.

So, to unlock this, I'm going to use a flat-bladed screwdriver and open up the tab and then pop this open. So I've actually pushed open the lock tab, and I'm going to try to just walk it off the middle. So, I didn't unlock it from here; I just unlocked it from the bottom and then walked it off the mount. So now, all the wiring is loose from the alternator. I can start to unbolt it.

There are two bolts holding on the alternator. There's one up here on top. It's got 14-millimeter head on it. There's a smaller one down here, kind of underneath the pulley. It's hard to see. Let's start with the one on the top. There's a 14-millimeter box wrench. I'm going to loosen it up.

I switched to a ratcheting wrench. You could also use a 40-millimeter socket and a ratchet. Before I take this bolt out completely, I'm going to go and loosen this bottom one now. The bolt underneath is 12 millimeter, so I'm using a 12-millimeter box wrench. I just have to reach down, and you kind of do it blind. You just find it, kind of directly below the pulley. Loosen it up. Now I've got it loose, I'm going to use a 12-millimeter ratcheting wrench to help get it out quicker.

All right. Now I've got it loose. Just pull it right out with my fingers. It's a pretty long bolt. Starting to get this one loose. Start to turn by hand. Here it comes. It's a long bolt. All right. Now, I just have to work the alternator off of the bracket.

So just kind of grab it both sides and just wiggle it back and forth. It should slide right off. I may need to try it and use a pry bar and just gently push against the block, against the alternator and just kind of wiggle it back and forth. At the same time, there it is. Now, I just have to take out the engine compartment. Careful with the harnesses. Let's see here. A little tricky to push them out of the way. Kind of guide it up and out.

Here's our old alternator. With the alternator removed, you can see where the crank position sensor wire comes up from the sensor. It's routed behind the water pump pulley, and it's hard to tell because it's really dirty, but there's a metal bracket that the wire is sitting in. Then it's routed up into the connector. So reach underneath, find the lock. Sometimes you push these in first and then unlock them. There it is.

Take a small flat-bladed screwdriver, and I'll work this plastic piece up. That's the lock. I'm just going to break it off, because we're not reusing this. Feed it out of the metal channel that it's sitting in. It did have a plastic clip that was clipped in the side of the block. It popped right out.

We can use a pulley holding tool. There's two outer holes in the pulley. We'll slide this tool into there. Sometimes if the drive belt was tight enough, I could have loosened the bolts with the drive belts on there. It didn't want to come loose, so I have to use this tool to hold the pulley, while I loosen the bolts. I'm using a 12-millimeter socket on a ratchet.

Clearance is very, very tight against the frame rail. I just have to get it in here. I'm going to set up the pulley holding tool. With these loose or one of them is loose, I'm going to remove this one, take that one out. I got the other one loose. Remove that with my fingers to loosen these two bolts. With the other two bolts removed, should give me some more clearance, and I can actually put this tool into one of the bolt holes and one of the counterhold holes. Just maneuver the tools around, so you get them into position.

We can remove the other bolts. Once they're free, they'll just come out finger-tight. Remove the pulley. It's rusted in place. I'm going to spray some rust penetrant. That rusty part is the snout of the water pump that the pulley is sitting on. I'll take a dead blow mallet, and I'm going to tap it the best I can. I'm going to have to do this way with it. There's a ball-peen hammer. Tap on the edge of the pulley. Spin it around. I'm going to keep spinning around. It's starting to come off. So, it is good to have a new pulley on hand.

You can get this from 1aauto.com, because it may be damaged or seized on here like this, and hitting it with a hammer is definitely not going to do it any good. But it will get it off here, so we can take the water pump out.

Normally, if these aren't really old and rusted like this, it's just a slip-on fit. It should come right out. This one's been on here a long time. The water pump was already damaged and leaking, and it was just started rusted on that the only way to get it off was to really hit it. Water pump is sitting in the side of the engine like this. There's bolts all along the outside edge. And actually, this one down here is a nut with a stud, and there's bolts down here and on this side. It's going to be hard to see when I'm removing them, but I'm just going along the outer edge and taking out all the bolts.

If there's any other studs, I'll take the nut off those studs. I'm going to spray some rust penetrant on the end of the stud that has the nut on it. I'm using a 10-millimeter socket and ratchet. Start with this one. I'm going to loosen off, take it off by hand, and put it aside. For this one here, this is also holding on a bracket. That's holding in the crank position sensor wire. I want to put that bracket aside, so I can reuse it.

Taking the bolt out and I've got the bracket with it. I'll put that aside. I'm going to feel around the edge of the water pump. The top bolt is here. It's kind of hard to see it's underneath this bolt inside of the engine, but I know where it is. I'll put the socket on it. Break it loose, on the lower one here.

I should also note that I've moved the drain pan since the radiator has drained out and close the drain plug on the radiator. I've moved the drain pan to underneath where the water pump is, because some coolant will drain out when I separate this from the engine block, and you'll just want to catch that and dispose of it properly. I've added an extension to my ratchet just to help me get around the snout of the water pump pulley, snout of the water pump here, and I'm just doing this by feel.

Find that lower bolt. There it is, and I'll remove it. Even if it's just the water pump gasket that's failed, the amount of trouble it is to change just the gasket, you should change the pump as well. The final one is another nut of the stud. I'm going to loosen this one. It is sitting on two studs. One here, one on the opposite side, so you can't just pull it straight like up and out. I'm going to wiggle it back and forth. Try to break the seal/gasket. I'm going to use the dead blow try to break it free. Just be careful. It's going to splash some coolant.

Take a small pry bar. There's a little bit of gap here. You can hear some of that coolant coming out. Just carefully pry against this. Pry open this here. It's just stuck with the gasket, so I'm going to now just gently pry it up. We're pulling around. I'll pull it out of the engine and our old water pump.

Here's our original water pump from our vehicle. This is our brand new one from 1aauto.com. Same exact style design. Same style pulley, where the pulley will mount. You can see where this one, the gasket probably went bad. It was leaking cooling around the edge, and this freeze plug started to rot out. And it was collecting old dried coolant in here. You know it'll fit great and work great for you. Just make sure you clean all the old gasket material off in the seating surface, and it's nice and clean before you install the new water pump.

Try not to drop this stuff into the water pump opening. I've got this surface nice and clean. I ended up taking a little bit emery cloth, after the getting the initial large bits of gasket off with a razor blade. Just clean it off, then wipe it down with a rag. I'm just going to take a wire brush and just clean up these threads on these studs and do the best you can. I just want to knock most of the rust off so the nuts will go over right back on there.

Make sure the surface is clean and dry. I'm going to install the water pump with a new gasket. Water pump is going to sit in place like this, with the gasket, so I'm going to place the gasket right on the studs. I might as well hold it in place when I install the water pump. I'm going to reinstall the water pump. Lined up. Don't forget to install the bracket that holds the crank position sensor.

It goes underneath and not here on the stud, and then the bolt goes through the top of it. Get it started. Put the bolt in. I'm not going to tighten them all the way. I'll come back and tighten them afterwards. Go around in a circle to tighten them. Now, just reinstall the other five bolts. Now, we'll torque the bolts and the two nuts to 80-inch pounds, which is 6.6 foot-pounds. You could round it up to seven foot-pounds, but we're using an inch-pound torque wrench and a short extension just for clearance issues. I'm just going to go around, kind of opposite and tighten it down.

Here's our original water pump pulley and a brand new one from 1A Auto. Same exact design. This will fit great and work great for us.

Install the new water pump pulley. Slide it over the water pump, and then probably going to have to spin it around. It's hard to see where the holes line up. Take one of the bolts. Put it in the hole and just try to hold the water pump steady. And then, when you find one, thread the bolt in, and it'll spin around to the opposite one. Repeat this for the other two.

I have them all in there hand-tight. I'm going to use a ratcheting wrench. Just snug them down as best I can. Pulleys don't want to move, as you're turning it, but you can come back afterwards with the belt on the car. It's less likely to move with the belt on here, and just give them a final tighten.

Reinstall the crank position sensor. That little clip right there is going to clip into the inside of the water pump. There's a little opening on the casting it snaps into. It keeps the wire from getting snagged in the pulleys, and then you'll run the wire up. Put it back into place. Clip it back onto the metal tab. Plug it back in. Its keyed, so it only goes in one way. It'll click when it goes back together.

Take your alternator and get it into position. Strap by lining up at the top first. It slides in nicely. Take your top bolts, then install it. We need to move the alternator around to line it up and just thread it in my hand. I got the top bolt threaded in pretty much all the way by hand. I don't want to tighten it yet, because I want to be able to move the alternator around. I'm going to take our lower bolts, and you're just going to have to feel around and line it up.

Actually, it's going to go through the ear that's sticking out of the block and then into the alternator. The alternator is the part that's threaded. I'm going to tighten up the lower bolts. It's a very small bolt. The torque is 15 foot-pounds, which can be basically be hand-tight. So I'm just going to snug it up. When I feel it stop and get tight, there, and I'll give it just a tad bit more. That should be good and use a ratcheting wrench to snug the top bolt up. Since I can get a torque wrench on the top bolt, use the 14-millimeter socket on here, and the torque is 38 foot-pounds.

The harness is back onto this bracket. So I'll take this one, and it should slide back on to the top just like that. It'll click into place. Snap the bottom one back on. Snap that one in. Plug the electrical connector back in. It's keyed. It'll only go on one way. Going to click when it's in place.

Now, we need to attach the positive cable. So this cut spun around. I'm going to push the cover down to remove the nut that's on here. This will sit right over it. Install the nut. Take a two-millimeter socket and ratchet and just tighten it down. It's about seven foot-pounds. You want to be careful not to break it. So once you feel it get tight, a little bit more, and that should be good. Then slide the rubber cover back over it.

That has positive power when the car is running. You don't want that to ground out. That's why that cover is there. I'm going to take this broken zip tie out of here. I'm not going to worry about that. If your vehicle was equipped with this bracket, and it's still attached to the harness, now, you can bolt it back to the alternator. It doesn't have to be super tight. Once you feel it get tight, like a little bit more, and then stop. Since our clip is broken, I'll use a cable tie and just attach this harness back down. Then we'll clip off the excess.

If you are reusing your drive belt, and you've only moved it aside to do the water pump, you can put it back on the pulleys from the top. We have additionally installed a new tensioner, and we're going to install a new drive belt, so we're going to start up by going from the side with the wheel off. So, it's also easier, too, if you want to take the wheel off, and you're doing a water pump to get access to the drive belt to take this wheel off.

Drive belt goes around power steering pulley, up and over the alternator pulley, around the water pump, down around the AC compressor pulley, around the crank and then up over the tensioner pulley. Cut the belt line up on the pulleys. Putting our bar back on here and then gently compress the tension here again. It feels like it's bottomed out. It's tight on the belt. Slide it onto the alternator pulley. Pull the pipe off. Release the tensioner slowly to let the tension come back. It won't spring back, because it's like a shock. It comes out a little slower, and the belt is on there perfectly.

Reconnect the negative terminal. Tighten it down. Now, fill and bleed the cooling system. We're using a coolant funnel for the appropriate 50-50 mixture of water and coolant the vehicle calls for. You don't need a funnel like this. It does make it easier. It certainly makes it easier for us to show you what's happening, but we're going to run the car, with it filled with coolant. The cap of course is not on here. This allows the car, when it warms up, the thermostat opens for any air bubbles that are trapped inside there to come out through this funnel and then be replaced by this extra coolant. You can simply do that by just filling the radiator up to the top and then running the car with the cap off. It might get a little messy, but it will work in your driveway.

At the same time, I'm also going to turn on the heat to hot. I won't turn the fan motor on, because I want the car to get warm enough and have the thermostat open up, but I do want coolant circulating through the heater core, so we eliminate any bubbles that may be in there. I'll remove our funnel. This coolant is hot, so I'm going to be careful. If you need to you, you can use this to top off your overflow reservoir. If not, I'll put it back in the bottle and reuse it. Then remove our funnel piece here, adapter.

Radiator's filled up right to the top, and I'll reinstall the radiator cap. I'll put the shield back in place underneath the bumper. Some of these clips are broken. This does line up over here. Push a clip that's not broken. I'll put it in. This would be the same for the side, except ours is broken. In this thing, this will go underneath. I'll put this 10 millimeter bolt back up in place. Capturing these two shields. If ours wasn't broken, this bolt would go through and up and into it. There's one more here, but ours broke. It's rusty. It's not a big deal. It's held with clips and bolts.

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