Car is over heating.... Please help!

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10-25-2008, 06:09 PM

#31

GreenDemon

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Join Date: Nov 2003

Location: Mishawaka, IN

Posts: 1,771

Quote:

Originally Posted by NukeFPE

I hear people keep saying its the pump ~ but I am at a loss to understand the failure mechanism of centrifugal pump if its not leaking at the seal? There is only 1 moving part (the impeller) and you cannot "wear" the impeller or the volute out. Short of starting the antifreeze holy wars ~ I'd stay w/ Dexcool. I'd change the serpentine belt to a new Goodyear Gatorback belt & clean the outside of the radiator before I go spending $150 on a new water pump.

Impellers can and do wear out. Sometimes the shaft breaks loose from the impeller or the fins can break off (although most of my experience is on VW/Audi where a lot of the impellers are plastic and will get brittle over time). On most other cars I've worked on the water pump leaks and the low coolant causes the overheat... which of course can cause issues w/ some customers because they want to know why they need a waterpump when their car was "just low on antifreeze".