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Ongoing problem. Bad water pump?

Posted: February 17th, 2010, 6:10 pm
by zreon
Hey guys, so my car has been giving me a bunch of problems for the past couple months. Long story short...my car is leaking water from the drivers side radiator (not the hose). It only starts to leak once the car has fully heated up, I'm guessing from pressure buildup. So I removed my thermostat to see if that made a difference. The first day I removed it, I drove about 100 miles without adding any water. The car was driving fine. However, every day it seems to get a little worse. Now I am having to fill it up every 20-30 miles.

I noticed yesterday that my lower radiator hose is totally cool when I turn my engine off. The water is steaming out of the little crack or whatever in the drivers side of the radiator. I know I need a radiator, but i want to try to piece together everything I need before I start buying stuff. I don't exactly have a lot of money right now so I'm trying to delay this as long as I can.

Originally, I wanted to do a BP swap a couple of weeks ago, but some other expenses came up and I had to put that off. Plus the more and more I read, it looks like it is kind of difficult into a 95.

Any suggestions as to what this could be? My next guess is my water pump.

Re: Ongoing problem. Bad water pump?

Posted: February 17th, 2010, 8:17 pm
by SpatialTerror
well if you had a bad water pump the pulley wouldnt spin. or it would spit water from around the barings.
and if you have a leak it screws with the circulaton of coolent.
because it has air in the lines.
as long as you dont have any leaks anywhere else.
you can just replace your radiator and it will fix the problem.

Re: Ongoing problem. Bad water pump?

Posted: February 19th, 2010, 7:07 pm
by MapaX5
SpatialTerror wrote:well if you had a bad water pump the pulley wouldnt spin. or it would spit water from around the barings.
and if you have a leak it screws with the circulaton of coolent.
because it has air in the lines.
as long as you dont have any leaks anywhere else.
you can just replace your radiator and it will fix the problem.
not to argue with ya there, but my water pump was leaking (at 125k miles, ofcourse) and it was such a small drip all it did was fall on the crank shaft which made me think it was a bad hose. replaced all those, only to find out once i picked up pressure, it was litterally dripping on the belts and flung it everywhere. i'd take a pic, but it's too cold.
long story short, replace the radiator and hoses, put a thermostat on it, and watch the water pump closely.
our water pumps don't usually get stuck like most others, they will simply spin or let water out of the lil hole on the bottom when the seals are gone.

Re: Ongoing problem. Bad water pump?

Posted: February 19th, 2010, 7:08 pm
by MapaX5
take the belts off it, and check the pump for play.
grab the WP pulley and just yank it. you won't break it.
if it has play, or you "break it" it's a bad WP.