Water Pump Gasket and Timing Belt Repair

[avguy]

..... He said most of the time this works, but 5% of the time the gasket will leak ......

You have to ask yourself one question. Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya punk?
IMO what this outfit did and said is either ignorance, stupidity, or both. What would make anyone think one of these O (AKA "crush") rings is in like-new condition and reusable after 60K/5 years or more of hot/cold cycles? I've seen the requirement to replace the O ring (even if not replacing the pump), in at least a couple of DIYs, and suspect it's fairly common knowledge for us amatures who spend time researching the job.
But given their un-professional approach to this, you have a very solid counter argument to what they're telling you. I'm assuming they did not give you the 5% talk up-front. So they should have no leg to stand on hitting you with this after-the-fact, without having offered you the option to replace the gasket with an extra charge, prior to beginning the job. However, if they did give you that option up-front, then they probably will be able to wiggle off the hook, and put yet another notch in their stealership belt. Good luck - I hope you wind up getting a N/C out of them on this.

[ceberus]

They told me nothing up front, except that the timing belt came as a kit with everything that was needed, and I could pick up my car on the same day -- which really makes me wonder because usually they try to sell you everything from wiper fluid to new brakes. And after they told me of the leak, I wondered for a long time why they did not even offer to replace the pump or the o-ring. That should have been standard procedure for them.

There defense for the o-ring failure was they were just "following instructions in the GM manual", but I think that's a bunch of BS because manuals should only be considered a rough guide.

So thanks everyone for your posts. I have all the information I need and your feedback was exactly what I was hoping to hear.

-greg