For a while I thought I nailed the prob. a faulty tstat. So with the tstat removed (but rubber o-ring in place) I drove the car to see if she would act weird... as in the needle shooting towards red zone for no reason.

So for a while I drove the car and she operated perfect without the tstat. K, going to order a new one and call it complete.

When all of a sudden yesterday she did it again. after only running for 10 minutes tops.

I stop pop the hood, numerous times starting her she refuses to cool. I get out and leave the key forward so the electrical is engaged still. i check all the waterpump connections and everything is rock solid.

as I'm looking around the waterpump fires up on its own without me coming close to any of its connections...and cools the car completely within seconds.

I'm confused. Had it been bad wiring, it would have jumped to life once I jostled with the wires...

What else can I check?

 

Sounds like a bad elec pump from what i got from scanning your post.

 

this is the exact reason i run my stock pump, just asking for a blown head gasket.

 

I really don't think its the electric waterpump, is there a way I can check to see how its failing?

I know I can hook it straight up to the battery but I can always hear it shut down when I turn off my car and hear it fire up when I turn the key forward for the first time.

Maybe I should use heavier gauge wire or something? Gah, that can't be it

 

You must have a poor conection,maybe a bad relay too.I am guessing.I would check the wiring real good.It is possible your pump is bad too,my bet is a connection tho.

 

I had probs w/ mine until I replaced the cheap fuse holder these pumps come w/. Turn your key on and grab the fuse holder and move the wires going in around and listen for the pump to cut un and out. I replaced the round fuse w/ a flat fuse in a nice holder and have had no probs since. I got the holder from my stereo guy and the quality and look of it are WAY better, I hate how these expensive pumps come w/ a cheap a$$ 2 cent fuse holder. Another thing I have yet to to is install a LED in the car conntcted to the pump so I know when it's on.

 

I second that...my CSI pump came with a crappy plastic fuse holder that ended up melting on one side and coming undone. We ended up putting two spade connectors on the wires and a blade fuse in between, then wrapping it up with electrical tape. It's a ghetto fix, but it works just fine. And thanks for reminding me...I still need to install my pump light too.

 

how hard would it be to install this LED now that I already have the pump wired and stuff?

I'd like to have that feature actually.

 

I plan on just splicing it into the power and ground wires for the pump and mounting it somewhere in the car. It's not a hard thing to do and I don't know why I haven't put mine in yet. IMO everyone w/ elec pump should have one.

 

If you do check your water pump, and if it is working, then it may well be a clogged radiator. That was the cause of my overheating problems a few years ago. You can pull the radiator and take it to a shop to have it cleaned.

ZMAN

 

Could that be the reason behind some slight gurlging sounds I can hear coming from the front of the engine bay somewhere?

I think we may have a winner, because I honestly think my waterpump is ok. Like I said I can hear it fire up and shut down all the time and I can hear it start up when the car is running too if I have her parked idling.

I never thought of clogged rad!

 

The pump should be on all the time...it should never shut off and then come back on while the car is on (at least it doesn't in mine). That sounds like a short somewhere to me.

The gurgling you're hearing shouldn't be there...you have air trapped in your cooling system somewhere. If everything is working correctly, you should only hear the pump running...no gurgling noises. You need to get all of the air out to keep the car from overheating...that's most likely the source of your problem right there.

 

I never thought the pump was always running, but that could be my own lack of education on this item

I figured that was the whole idea behind the LED, that you could see when it turned on and when it was off.

 

The light is just so you know to turn the car off if the pump stops working. No water pump = bad news. It only takes about 30 seconds to go from dead cold to 260* without the pump running (that's when I found out that the fuse holder was crap). There's another way to wire it so that the light only comes on if the pump stops working...I'll probably do it that way so I don't burn out the light since it will only be on when necessary.

 

Well the pump can't operate at different speeds I'm assuming. I'm going to have to cap my cutout because I can not recall hearing my pump going all the time.

How do you have yours wired? I followed some online instructions that I found through this webpage..