237,000 miles = Water Pump

Topic: 237,000 miles = Water Pump (Read 1430 times) previous topic - next topic

237,000 miles = Water Pump

March 03, 2006, 02:53:28 PM

Oh my, what a fun day yesterday was. I had my Devry Orientation and I had to be there.

A couple of days ago I was at 8birdy8's house and I thought I smelled a bit of antifreeze. I passed it off as the degreaser he was using to clean his car. On the way home the car started to howl a bit, I though nothing of it as the sled makes all kinds of noises.

Fast forward to yesterday, me getting ready to leave for Devry. I started my car and it squirted antifreeze out the bottom.

I had an hour and a half drive to Devry and I had to make it, couldn't get ahold of anyone. So I set forth in the sled. I stopped about every half hour and filled it back up with water. On the way home when I stopped at autohole to pick up a new pump I decided to fill it up again. Well it was so far gone that water was coming out of the weep hole as fast as I could poor it in. So said F**k it and drove the rest of my trip, about an hour, home.

Today I changed the pump! It was so bad that the impeller had started cutting into the waterpump housing itself!

Needless to say I'm not looking forward to a water pump change on a sefi 3.8 any time soon. Had to take a bunch of junk off to get to it! Atleast its not leaking at all now!

I did get to change my oil sending unit so now my TC cluster reads right.

Ok I'm done. Nobody is home and I had to bitch.

237,000 miles = Water Pump

Reply #1 – March 03, 2006, 03:02:13 PM

Sounds like what happened with my 5.0. Except I had just gotten off the highway to hit up Summit Racing of all places. Went in, got what I needed, walked out and had a nice river of antifreeze to follow back to my car.

237,000 miles = Water Pump

Reply #2 – March 03, 2006, 03:05:36 PM

Haha. Sorry not poking fun.
I was in my Junior year of high school in chemistry and my teacher got a phone call. After he hung up, he said "Fred to the office with keys." So I went down to the office and they told me someone reported my car was leaking some type of green fluid. I went outside and sure enough, the water pump is leaking like nobodys business. I had lost over half of my antifreeze and after arguing with the office for about 15 minutes and a few phone calls to my parents, they let me go. I managed to get the car home and the rest just drained off in my driveway. It happened to be early January and it not only was friggin cold but it had just recently snowed. That was a fun thing to change in the driveway.
I should have known right there that this thing would be trouble:giggle:

237,000 miles = Water Pump

Reply #3 – March 03, 2006, 04:48:22 PM

haha wow guys.sorry to hear about that. Glad you made it to your orientation.... hope the car didn't get damaged in the process though.

Since we are telling about green fluid stories... this is the most embarrassing. I was at a car show filled with imports and riced domestics. Well the cougar sat in the middle... So yes it was about 95-100 degrees that day, SOOO hot. Anyways, we are gathering around the cars a big group awaiting the judge results when I hear them announce "Would the owner of the v8 car, please report to your vehicle" I was like, sweet, maybe I won something.... but the only thing I won was a hole in the radiator pouring out antifreeze.. I dunno how it started, but BAM all came rushing out. Funny thing was the parkinglot was on a slope so my antifreeze ran down the hill hitting everyones front tires. LMFAO I guess you had to have been there, but to hear a bunch of angry "angry bees" leave the parkinglot was priceless.

237,000 miles = Water Pump

Reply #4 – March 03, 2006, 05:49:43 PM

You know you're in the wrong show when you hear

Quote

Would the owner of the v8 car, please report to your vehicle

I hate when I'll hit a show and the hopped-up 4-bangers come in. It is funny to see them hide in the corner from all the V-8 cars though.

237,000 miles = Water Pump

Reply #5 – March 03, 2006, 07:02:55 PM

Quote

I hate when I'll hit a show and the hopped-up 4-bangers come in. It is funny to see them hide in the corner from all the V-8 cars though.

I never have that problem. The two usual cruise nights I go to only have muscle cars. Hopped up 4 bangers don't dare come in :D . When I go to a show it's usually sponsored by my Thunderbird club so it's either all Tbirds or an all Ford show. You just have to be selective as to what shows you go to.

237,000 miles = Water Pump

Reply #6 – March 03, 2006, 07:04:07 PM

Oh yeah 237,000 miles is a hell of a long time for a water pump to last! The one on my 5.0 went at 125,000.

237,000 miles = Water Pump

Reply #7 – March 03, 2006, 07:34:27 PM

Hey.....nothing wrong with a hopped up 4-banger! I've gotten more comments and questions about my car than my dad has about his 68 Chevelle SS. Needless to say I'm usually the ONLY 4 cylinder car at these shows. Everyone has to have a 60's or 70's muscle car where I'm from. Well how about an unknown 80's muscle machine???

Anyway, not embarassing but a PITA anyway...Came home from a casual drive and the seal on my water pump ripped I guess. So my car was steaming rather annoyingly. 2.3's are rather easy to change...but annoying to lean over the fresh paint.

237,000 miles = Water Pump

Reply #8 – March 03, 2006, 08:02:42 PM

About the last week in december I had to change mine on the bent six.
It wasn't too awful cold, but I hated taking half of he accessory brackets off just to get the pump loose...
Dunno if it was the original pump, but the car had just hit 200,000...
Now that I sit and think about it a few seconds, it isn't the original pump, hell, the 3.8 in the car isnt the original...
You're guess is good as mine...
But anyway, then had to replace the fan hub and t-stat, as it still wasn't running at the right temp.
All's well now, just when I'm ready to pull the engine...

237,000 miles = Water Pump

Reply #9 – March 03, 2006, 10:17:24 PM

That's one thing I love about the 2.3L- changing the water pump is cake. Take off the belt, take off the water pump pulley, remove all necessary hoses, remove 3 bolts and the water pump is off :)

On my old 2.3L Mustang, the water pump decided to bite the dust once when I was on my way to the pittsburgh airport with my brother. We stopped at a mcdonalds along the way, came back out and there was a river of antifreeze coming out from under it. Oh well, not much I could do at the moment...continued on up to the airport, where we flew down to Florida for a family reunion. When we came back I drove it back 2 hours home with no problems. That was the weird thing about that car, the radiator could only be half full and it would still never overheat as long as the car was moving :dunno:

And speaking of water pumps, I had to change the one on my tempo last winter. Really made me hate FWD cars.

237,000 miles = Water Pump

Reply #10 – March 03, 2006, 10:39:34 PM

From my experiance the guage wont read hot if the sender has no water on it.

237,000 miles = Water Pump

Reply #11 – March 04, 2006, 12:09:21 AM

Quote from: CougarSE

From my experiance the guage wont read hot if the sender has no water on it.

Right, back in '96, I was driving an Escort GT, and I guess the headgasket decided to irrigate a cylinder, well, it was around december or so, and really cold for a few weeks, and the engine hadn't been getting up to normal temp anyway, so I didn't pay any attention to it for about 2 weeks, until one day when I got to work, and it was making some strange noises.
Turned out to need 2 new pistons, the whole hed needed rebuilt, and some other minor parts, not mention a new water pump, and hg.
That little car was by far the best car I've ever had, still tempted to fix it....
Had the 1.9L HO...

237,000 miles = Water Pump

Reply #12 – March 04, 2006, 01:10:49 AM

Quote from: FordTruckFreeek

Right, back in '96, I was driving an Escort GT...........That little car was by far the best car I've ever had, still tempted to fix it....

Had the 1.9L HO...

I can smell hillbilly. You've had a broken down escort in your backyard for Ten Years!?

237,000 miles = Water Pump

Reply #13 – March 04, 2006, 01:42:54 AM

Quote from: CougarSE

From my experiance the guage wont read hot if the sender has no water on it.

That's weird...My experiences with Sundances is completely opposite. When no water was on the sender, it pegged hot. Thus meaning headgasket replacement time....its a very nice indicator. Catch it quick enough and the head wouldn't warp. Plus the sender was at the top most part of the cooling system so if any air was in the system...it would end up there and cause a nice spike in temperature. Chrysler POS's......we have a love/hate relationship.