I just can't believe this crap. This is now my fifth water pump that has started leaking. This last pump was the Ford replacement pump and housing. The Ford dealership replaced it this time so it's under their warranty. I posted on Jan 09 the last time it started leaking. I've had two advance auto water pumps fail and now two ford water pumps. The ford mechanic tested the system pressure and everything looked ok. My engine is running at normal temperature and the motor is purring like a kitten. Anybody got any idea's cause this is really getting old? All the pumps fail the same way. They start seeping antifreeze out of the seepage hole on the bottom of the pump. The first pump that went bad disintegrated and as a result destroyed my motor. Ah that would make 6 water pumps if you include that one.
Regards,
Dave Anderson
Dave: over the years (the old days) the water pumps on car had a metal impeller... back then the only thing that would go wrong with a w/pump was the seal in the shaft and the coolant would leak out of the weep hole(the little hole under the pump.... the times it had happend to me was like when i did not have any coolant, just water in the vehicle, or when i had the fan belt too tight as it would put too much force on the shaft and mess up the bearing in there and the seal would leak.. i once use some cleaner for the coolant system to get rid of the crap in the radiator to keep the temperature down in the coolant system... the next day the weep hole was leaking so i must have messed up the seal in the pump with the cleaner for the system......
Do you have a clean coolant system??? do you run it with just water in the coolant system??? is the belt on the pump too tight??? this is what you have to look for...
Do you have a clean coolant system??? do you run it with just water in the coolant system??? is the belt on the pump too tight??? this is what you have to look for...
I have never used any cleaner in my system and the system was flushed a while back so I have fresh antifreeze in my system. 50/50 mix. The belt is easy enough to take off by just pressing on the pulley with your hand so it can't be to tight, if anything it's on the loose side by the way the tensioner was designed.
DaveNC
Dave, what do the broken pumps look like when you remove them? I mean are the impellers okay & such.
Any visible signs of damage or warpage?
The only thing I can think of is the mounting surface between the pump & block is faulty, or now not flat anymore...
How often has Ford changed it for you. That would be a good place to start and investigation to see why you keep getting failures. A complete history of your waterpump problems (shown to the shop manager) might go a long way towards solving the problem..
Good luck!
Sounds like a bad pump housing.I replaced my pump with
an AIRTEX water pump from napa auto parts.AIRTEX sells
pumps with steal propeller and not the factory plastic.
These pumps often go bad with no sound at all,but the
car will over heat!
Mine went by the impeller breaking, partly due to crud in the coolant. If you have scaling or something else producing repeated coolant contamination perhaps that could be doing it.
I have a few guesses:
There may be a piece of debris from one of the old water pumps that circulates through the system & "shocks" the water pump when it goes through the impeller. Flush the ^%*& out of it in every direction/orafice you can think of.
Check to be sure the cam pully is spinning true. If that is not dead straight, it can put added stresses on the pump shaft/bearing - especially at higher RPMs.
Could there be an air pocket in the area of the pump? Stupid BMW I have would stop circulating coolant unless you paid a great tribute to the BMW cooling God & bled the system, your veins, & your wallet all over the engine bay.
5th? Thats kinda strange... many people who own a Duratec can go awhile without their water pump falling apart...
I have a guess but its pretty bad news, I work fro firestone and recently threw 4 waterpumps at a 96 duratec, until we found the headgasket was leaking and allowing pressure to build up int he waterpump and bam it blew
which would show signs of blowing first a big mean headgasket or a wimpy paper waterpump gasket... I hope this isnt your case but it is surely a possibility
Originally posted by Nate'sTour:
Dave, what do the broken pumps look like when you remove them? I mean are the impellers okay & such.
Any visible signs of damage or warpage?
The only thing I can think of is the mounting surface between the pump & block is faulty, or now not flat anymore...
How often has Ford changed it for you. That would be a good place to start and investigation to see why you keep getting failures. A complete history of your waterpump problems (shown to the shop manager) might go a long way towards solving the problem..
Good luck!
The pumps look ok. They just start leaking out of the seepage hole. The impellers look great. Funny thing is you can almost time when it going to happen. The two advance auto water pumps started leaking exactly two weeks after I installed them. The two ford pumps started leaking 4 weeks after they were installed. Almost to the day.
The Ford place changed it the last time with the whole assembly including the housing.
The bearings in the water pumps are still real tight when they go bad. They still have plenty of tension when you turn them by hand. I've looked at the belt turning when I replaced the pumps the first few times and they appear to be turning straight so that rules out the pulley and tensioner.
I had two from Advance go out with the seep leak. I then got my money back from Advance and bought one from Auto Zone. That went out. I then went to NAPA and bought a FORD rebuilt water pump and it has worked fine ever since. Apparently there are some cheappppppp pumps out there....
I just got off the phone with the Ford place and they said when they contacted the Tech Service at the Ford Factory they Tech service people knew exactly what was wrong and how to fix it. Apparently others have had the same problems and Ford has addressed the issue. Like we didn't already know that.
The Tech Service people said to change the water pump again and also an extra hose on the cooling system. I'll find the details out when I pick my car up and post the exact hose and reason for the change.
I suspect the new hose is larger and alleviates the excessive pressure behind the impeller causing the seal to go bad prematurely.
DaveNC
Now this is interesting.....I'd like to know which hose for sure!!!!
Thanks,
BT
Well I'm going to pick my car up at lunch today and here's the story from the mechanic who talked to the Ford Tech Service people.
When my car superheated and destroyed my motor the top radiator hose got damaged. Not visible to the naked eye but internal damage. The hose then proceeded to contaminated the system with microscopic pieces of the material the hose is made of. These microscopic pieces not visible to the naked eye get wedged in between the seal and shaft of the water pump and eventually destroy the seal.
The solution is to replace the upper hose and then throughly flush the system of the remaining fuid. The mechanic said he flushed the system for 2 hours. He stated he had never heard such a thing before and neither have I. I'll double check to make sure of which hose specifically Ford said to replace and post the info. This would apply to any of the Tours that superheated I suspect. Me flushing the system without changing the hose probably wouldn't have fixed my problem.
Regards,
DaveNC
It's the upper radiator hose assembly. A $83.00 part. An octopus hose that goes all over the place. Hope this is it.
DaveNC
From recent info related to me by Ford mechanic working on my son's work van (good ole torque monster (7.3) that a Ford rep. looks like contamination is also was the reason for impeller breakage. Goes back goes to the casting process, and some block designs/casting processes used on the Duratec's and also the Zetec's ( mechanic said he had broken immpeller's on them also???) have had much more residual left. And later on after the heat cycles it will let go. I remember the first time I flushed mine a couple years after I purchased it new many pieces of casting residue and sand came out. I flushed that block and and heater core for several hours. I filled with water and drove til it got up to temp and back flushed. At 36k I replaced the pump just in case, it looked fine.
My 2 cents or more fuel on the fire?
Paul
98 Duratec built 07/97
Martha....add a upper radiator hose to the list will ya!!!!
Thanks,
Bob
Well, I'll be damned if that's the fix. I too am on my 5th water pump. The stock one failed at 68K. The impellor was split in half so I was able to retrieve the entire thing. The car did get very hot, so hot that the temperature sender broke at the same time.
Anyway I replaced the WP with a GMB. When that failed I went to a Ford. Then just to get it fixed another GMB. Then when that failed I tried one from Pep Boys (I can't remember the name). Each time the pumps last between 2-3 months and then starting dripping out the weep hole.
This is a very frustrating problem; the car runs FANTASTIC otherwise.
Please keep us informed of your progress.
Have you replaced your upper radiator hose? David said this is the cause of the multiple water pump failures due to pieces of the hose breaking away..
Just an update to this thread since I started it. It is now 4 months since I had my last water pump replaced along with the upper radiator hose and a total system flush. Guess what no more water pump failures. Ford finally diagnosted it correctly. I hope this helps those that are going throught the same crap with multiple water pump failures. I guess the safest route to go if the car gets hot is to just go ahead and replace the upper radiator hose and flush the system when you replace the pump.
DaveNC
Thanks for updating, got to go out and stare at that hose must been causing increase pressure/vacuum in the system and the seal was the weak point???? Remembering how close to the ragged edge parts or systems are designed (cost cutting).
Sometimes I wonder why I'm still a car buff, got to be something out there a WHOLE lot less fustrating?
Paul
thank god that someone has finally shed some light on this problem. I am on my 4 th pump. All is well so far, touch wood. I had Ford replace all of them and I still had problems. I hope after the last one, they did the flush and hose, but somehow I don't think so....probably flush only. They lasted a year each time.