Water pump problem.... :(

[cavaliers60]

:cry: Why?!?!? :cry:

I think I might be needing to get a new water pump..... I backed it up today to work on restoring the interior back to its normal state, and I noticed a puddle under my car.... It was the engine coolent!!! So I look around and my dad comes out to look at it and found out its coming either from the pump or the hose... We are pretty certain it's the pump.. :cry:

[cavaliers60]

Really, I guess my only question is, how hard would it be to just replace it myself? I'm sure it will cost an arm and probably a leg to get it done by a shop, but if I can, I'd like to save the money and do it myself....

[DUSTIN0285]

there both easy

[megabyte]

it's easy to do. You have to drain the coolant, slip the belt off, remove the water pump cover which is basically the pulley, then take out the water pump.

[cavaliers60]

ok cool thanks.. I'm going to go get it looked at to make sure it IS the water pump..

[alerored04]

water pump is cake. I changed it in 20 min in a gas station parking lot before. Look at the hood liner to see if the pump is slinging coolant up onto the underside of the hood. If the liner is wet, voila its the water pump.

[cavaliers60]

It's dripping like RIGHT under it and only really drips when the car is running... I'm pretty certain it's the pump.. We need a pully deal to get it off though, right?? That's what my dad said, so he is going to work on it on Saturday. Another quick question.... Where's the thermostat located???

[Cliff8928]

No special tools to do the water pump on the 3400... It's easier than the thermostat. The thermostat is on the side of the lower intake under the throttle body.

[cavaliers60]

No special tools to do the water pump on the 3400... It's easier than the thermostat. The thermostat is on the side of the lower intake under the throttle body.

so like I need to remove something before I can get to it???? If that's the case, then screw that.. lol

[alerored04]

dont say that, the throttle body is the only thing that needs to come off. All you need for that whole job is a flathead, a 15mm socket and a 15mm deep well. Its cake.

[cavaliers60]

Well I unscrewed the 4 bolts on the pully that's over the water pump.... But I can't figure out how to get it off....

[alerored04]

tap it with a hammer, it should just fall off. At least thats how mine came off.

[cavaliers60]

yeah... That's what we ended up doing... Everything is done minus a small vibration noise coming from one of the pullies... not sure, but I think it's the little one I ended up taking off to help put the belt back on and such (thought it was the adjustment one to adjust the tension)..... so Everything works now (thank God)... I just now need to drain a little bit of that water and put in some coolant.

[alerored04]

glad to hear it. Now wasnt that better than taking it to a shop?

[cavaliers60]

Yes it was, although I do have the adjustment pully making noise... It's rattling around a bit too... I tried to tighten the bolt up, but it's still shaking a bit.... It's not hurting the engine performance, just kinda worried me... I don't really want that flying off while driving on the highway. lol

[Cliff8928]

The bearing is probably going bad in the tensioner pulley.

[strtrydr]

:lol: isn't that the way it always works with these cars ... fixed one thing now need to fix another

[cavaliers60]

It never did it till we had to adjust it to tension up the belt... Grrrr.... Would it hurt it if I just kinda let it keep doing it for a while? cause that's what I've been doing. haha

[Cliff8928]

the bearing will start to go bad, the pulley will melt from the heat and the belt will come off.. seen it happen too many times. Spend the 20 bucks and fix it.