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My turn to play "as the water pump turns"

oldsalt

CEG'er
Joined
Nov 12, 2007
Messages
42
Location
Norfolk, VA
Okay, so it's my turn to play "as the water pump turns" I noticed my temp rising above the mid point on the temp gauge and a sudden change from warm air to cool air coming out of my defroster accompanied by a new whirring sound coming from under the hood and after having read the symptoms and stories of the water pump failures here in this forum I knew right away what was up. I U-turned my CSVT and shot for home, luckily it was only 50 degrees outside so I made it home before the temp skyrocketed though it was solidly in the red when I shut it down. I bought a new water pump and belt, some antifreeze and this afternoon I will tackle the task of replacement. Of note is the fact that my water pump belt completely ripped apart all that is left are strips of the reinforced wire from inside the belt. I did install the new belt on the old pump last night and ran the engine but I could still here an unusual whirring so I shut it down in case the pump locked up and would break my new belt. I only know the history of this car from just more than a year ago and no info on whether my car has had a new and improved water pump installed somewhere in the past or not (123K miles) I figure that I will change the pump regardless and if I find the existing pump is good I'll just keep it as a spare, the whirring does bother me some but sometimes when you pay extra close attention you start to hear things you hadn't hard before so I don't know I'll keep you posted as the the results.
 
...and the survey says...

...and the survey says...

Well, the waterpump repair is complete. My unit had already been replaced with the newer white plastic impellor and had not failed only the belt broke, additionally the stainless steel pump contour ring (for lack of a better name fell out into my catch pan alerting me to an additional problem. Rather than replace that portion of the pump I decided to peen it back in place which was actually quite easy to do. BTW I did not remove any hoses or the coolant cap nor did I drain coolant from the radiator and only lost maybe 2 quarts of coolant. Does anyone know why they recommend draining the coolant seems like a good waste of time, effort, and coolant if you ask me.
 
because antifreeze is the forgotten coolant to change. if you've never done it,now's the perfect time. :shrug:
 
Thats the thing, I had a complete coolant flush and replenishment less than a year ago, and I thought (for the most part) these failing water pump impellors were in rather large pieces, so, if there were a case where after removal (without draining the coolant as I did) you found that there were missing pieces then one could go forward with the flush, but I just don't see it as a necessityof this particular portion of the job unless warranted based on conditions. Sure saves time, money, and the mess. Clearly though each case must be looked at independently, I just wanted to get out there that this task can be done with very little disturbance to the existing coolant reservior.
 
this is why have have the metal impeller. AAAHHHH YEAH!:laugh:
Until the reducer cone, which you did not replace, comes loose and starts wearing down your (now) shiny metal impeller. :blackeye:

Best to just get the new water pump assembly from Ford.
 
Until the reducer cone, which you did not replace, comes loose and starts wearing down your (now) shiny metal impeller. :blackeye:

Best to just get the new water pump assembly from Ford.

Eh, it was on the car when I got it. So I'm not too worried.:cool:
 
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