Wondering how much is a reasonable cost for timing belt/water pump replacement for 2012 Acura TL? Does it matter if I can OEM water pump or third party? Thanks!

 

That's a loaded and oft discussed question; search is your friend in this instance.

 

Cost is tough to say as it depends on where you live. But stick with OEM parts for sure when it comes to timing belt and water pump.

 

Buy the Aisin kit (TKH-002) off amazon. Less than $200 bucks for OEM parts w/o the OEM price.

As for install, call around. Anything over $400 is a rip off.

 

Use OEM or Aisin as mentioned above.

Acura dealers will charge around $1000-1200.

Honda dealers will charge around $800.

Indy will charge around $600.

DIY should be $250 parts + beer if you are capable.

 

Depending on location, you may find some local Azine guys who can do it or at least assist you if you don't feel comfortable doing it on your own.

 

Never knew about the Aisin kit. Huge!

 

This is timely as well for me too.

I can get the kit as well as the Bando OEM serpentine belt. My local shop quoted $500 for labor. Are these parts generally reliable?

I also need to change spark plugs, which I can do myself. Is the NGK ILZKR7B11 (Gap 0.044") the right plug?

Thanks in Advance.

 

It is my understanding the Aisin kit is OEM as is the Bando serpentine belt; are you asking if the OEM stuff is generally reliable?

 

Just called a local Acura dealer for the cost of replacing the following:

• timing belt
• water pump (coolant flush included)
• serpentine belt
• spark plugs
• valve clearance adjustment

all for $1,975, before a 15% off coupon through Costco.

Does this sound like a reasonable price?

Thanks!

 

If I don't do the spark plugs and the valve adjustment, it will be $13xx before the Costco coupon.

 

Geez. That's a lot.

If you were local I'd offer to do it for you at maybe $700 for all of it. It's 10 hours of work at best and about $250 in parts with spark plugs.

 

Thank you! Too bad, I am on the east coast my local dealer charges like double on the parts.

 

A friend of mine at an Acura dealership told me he could get all the work done under three hours:

• timing belt
• water pump (coolant flush included)
• serpentine belt
• spark plugs
• valve clearance adjustment

 

What about the front main seal and the cam seals?

 

Haha, I guess not. I don't even know what these are, and when they are supposed to be replaced.

 

The front main seal is the seal which prevents oil from leaking out from the front end of the crank shaft, the cam seals are similar in function in that they prevent oil from leaking out from the front of the cam shafts. The thing is, if (or more like when) these items start to leak, you need to tear the front of the engine down in the same manner as when doing the timing belt. Said another way, if you're doing a timing belt job anyway, spending the extra few bucks and have the crank and cam seals done can save hundreds of dollars down the road.

 

Wow. That's quick. I've done the job twice and took my sweet time - triple checking the tech manual when it comes to anything timing belt related and triple checking/measuring valve clearance. But I suppose once you've done it several times it becomes second nature.

 

I could see 3 hours with a lift. It's unbelievable how much easier everything is when your not working on jack stands.

 

Yeah, he is a full time technician at the Acura dealership for years, so he's done at least a few hundreds of these if not more. The dealership allows their technicians to use the shop for their side work. I dropped off the car at 6:15 PM, he probably got everything done in two hours, because he showed up before 9 PM at my house which is a 35-40 min drive from the dealer.

 

Having done the timing belt and water pump etc in my CL, I would happily pay $1300 to have it done by someone else!

 

A little late but....

As for the spark plugs, it depends if you have the 3.5 or 3.7. The 3.7 uses the single core - ILZKR7B11, but the 3.5 uses the dual core - DILZKR7A11G

This is the case for the 12-14 (4G TLs). I've seen a lot of places online only selling the single core ones for the "2012 Acura TL", with no indication of the motor size, but after checking Acura/Honda OEM part sites, you'll find the difference between the two.

 

When I had my 3G TL, I had the dealership do the belt/water pump service the first time, and it was $1100-ish, but they gave me a coupon that took 15% off so it was actually around $900. But, that was without spark plugs or valve check/adjust. I did it myself a second time when the car hit 200k and it took me about 6 hours of "actual working time", that's without all the breaks I took throughout the process.

I'm planning on doing it on my 4G within the next few weeks, but I'm really not looking forward to doing it cause it's the middle of the fricken summer and I live in Florida....

 

That's the exact thing I found out, after I purchased the ILZKR7B11. Even NGK's website states the ILZKR7B11 for the 3.5L. I had them in for a few weeks before I found out, after which I purchased the DILZKR7A11G's. I ended up putting the ILZKR7B11 is my wife's Pilot since they were specified for that engine. Never noticed a difference in the TL with the DILZKR7A11G's.

 

3 hours is fast!!! Esp for the valve adjustment since it takes me at least 2hrs for the valve adjustment and sparkplugs alone!

 

Yeah, it makes no sense why but pretty much everywhere says that it’s the ILZs for all TLs. I only figured it out because I noticed there were two different plug #s on eBay, so I looked it up in Acura’s parts catalog and confirmed the different plugs used in the 3.5.