Recently had some overheating issues with my G. Took it to a shop and they quoted me $3,300 to replace the water pump (the source of the coolant leak) and the timing assembly.

I'm in my early 20s with beginner car wrenching abilities and worried that due to the mileage of this car it's only gonna be a headache for me, even after this investment.

Does anyone have any advice on this? Is it possible to get another 10K-20K more miles out of the car with minor repairs? Or am I better off just parting ways with it?

Any input at all is appreciated it!

 

That quote is definitely a “we don’t want to do this and don’t regularly do this on this engine” high quote.

I would contact an independent Nissan shop to quote you for timing gallery gasket replacement and timing replacement. It should include water pump and all front timing chain cover seals.

typically this work is $1500-2000. If you don’t do the gallery gaskets and do the whole timing, that’s a mistake and a grenade waiting to drop on your oil pressure.

 

Beautiful! Thanks for the reply I'll go ahead and give that a go!

 

Two more shops quoted me nearly $3500 for the gallery gaskets and timing replacement. Gonna try and find a few more specialists to try and give me a better quote. But unfortunately have yet to find on in the Boston area.

Heavily considering doing this job myself.

 

I feel like once a car overheats there's so much that could possibly go wrong/be wrong with it after that. Considering the price it would cost to fix(if you dont do it yourself) , the miles on it and any potential problems ot may have down the road from overheating i would try to sell it and get one with lower miles if possible

 

Yeah that's what I have also been looking into as well. Not sure if I'd get another G, even though I really love the car. Been looking into other vehicles but trying to find something that strikes a balance of being fun to drive and reliable on a daily basis, especially within my price range is a bit difficult.

 

Two more shops quoted me nearly $3500 for the gallery gaskets and timing replacement. Gonna try and fine a few more specialists to get a better quote, but not finding too many in the Boston area.

Heavily looking into doing this myself.

 

I bought a 2007 G35 Sedan and a month ago I did my water pump on my 07 VQ35HR because it decided to leak. It decided to leak because the previous owner didn't notice the low coolant level as it leaked out from one of the useless throttle body heater tubes. Parts from Z1 motorsports were under $300 for water pump, gallery gaskets, timing chain rails and chain tensioner. It's a lot of work and if you never touched a HR or VHR engine, it's gonna be hard. The WORST part is getting that damn harmonic balancer off. I've used 5/8 rebar to block the balancer and 1" breaker bar with extension pipe to get that bolt off. It was thread locked for some reason..

In my case, i took the front off; Bumper, radiator, fans for easier access.

VQ35HR Timing eXposed

You can watch uTube videos and decide if it's cheaper to fix or replace the whole engine instead. these engines don't like to run hot, too many things to go wrong afterwards like the magnetic retarders. After all that's done, the last thing that MUST be done is air bleeding from the cooling system using a fill funnel like this one: Good luck.