Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Over Heating

My car's coolant or thermostat light has been coming on so I check the coolant and everything looks good, all full. Well today I noticed my car making a loud fan noise so I look and sure enough the needle is on the red. I went across the st to a Pep Boys, told him the situation and said it could be my water pump and then I started remembering about all the water pump stories. I was wondering if it could eb the thrmostat or something more simple. Also what was the cost on the water pump fix?

thanks.

Mine did this too. I tried to think of every other possible thing wrong, but when it come down to it, the waterpump was bad. Find a NAPA store and have them order a DURAPRO pump for you. This one has the metal impeller. It is not hard to put in. I did mine myself and everything went smooth.

Blaze

TRED,

Mine turned out to be a bad waterpump, too. Although I didn't wait until it actually overheated I noticed it was running hotter than normal for a few weeks. One of the benefits of having something other than idiot lights, I guess.

I bought a new pump with a metal impeller through AutoZone. I don't consider myself to be a great mechanic but I replaced mine fairly easily by following the directions in the how-to section of the CEG website. Click here for a quick link to it: V6 Waterpump Replacement

These cars have electric fans instead of engine driven fan clutches. You have to take the thermostat housing out anyway to change the pump, or I did anyway, so you might as well put a new pump in. In my case the impeller on mine didnt come apart, it cracked in three places going to the middle. Which made the impeller slip on the shaft. So the impeller was only turning very slowly. Thats why it would heat up on the highway and when I would stop it would cool back down slowly. The impeller was turning enough to cool it at idle. But at highway speeds the impeller was still just turning very slowly, not cooling the engine fast enough. The engines, being aluminum, im sure it isnt good on them to overheat them very much. A waterpump is a far amount cheaper than a new head or worse. Good luck

Blaze

thanks for the help.

I am definatly going to check out my thermostat and water pump. Am I correct in this assumption? If the stat is broken then the fans won't turn on? My fans sounded like they were going the fastest I have ever heard. That's what made me check the temp gauge to beign with.

Anyone have a price on the work for a water pump or thermostat. It doesn't sound very hard to do but would still like a estimate on parts and labor if anyone has done this before.

thanks

oh and I talked to my uncle about it. He said usually when the pump goes bad you will know because it might even fall off. The way he talked about it, it was definatly noticable when the pump went.

Fans should still work with a bad tstat, the bad tstat makes engine get too hot, then fans come on...
And depends on how bad the h2o pump gets as far as how much u notice it. Though I'm gonna guess the pump is u'r problem. And no, it's not gonna fall off when it goes bad,, though that would be useful as it would take one step away in replacing it.

Probably what your uncle meant is that the impeller usually breaks and falls off, which is true. In some instances it breaks and cracks enough to fall off into the waterpump housing or just cracks and slips on the shaft. The pump cost me about 60.00 or around there at Napa for the Durapro pump. Im not sure about labor, probably about 50.00 labor, but im just guessing.

Blaze

the reason why the fans were going so fast is that if its like mine you have two fans and they were both working due to it being super hot(the engine).. sure sign of needing a new water pump.... if still in doubt try grabbing the large hose that goes back to the rad.(the one on top... if the pump is working it should be flowing water inside.. try pinching the hose close and see if you can feel the water trying to open up your pinch??? or you might just have the belt on the battery side of the car that drives the W/P not working, it might be slipping or off the pulley.. that would stop the pump from working also... remove the plastic cover off the top of the engine so you can see the belt..
first get a Haynes book on your car at auto zone, i paid about $13.00 for mine when i got it in 1996....