I'd like to present an award to dodge/crystler for creating what has to be the world's crappiest minivan. It's the 98 dodge caravan with the 3.0 liter engine.

Today, I left the entire day to change out a water pump... something that should take 3 or 4 hours tops on a normal car. But not this one.

The water pump is driven by, not the serpentine belt like it should be, not an electric motor like it could have been... no, it's driven by, wait for it, the timing belt. Who designs these things?

The lower radiator hose exits the radiator in the usual location, then travels across the front of the engine, then goes up to a metal tube at the back of the engine. This tube passes over the lifter valley, but under the intake manifold and enters the water pump from the back. :-/

This creates a situation where it's nearly impossible to align the water pump inlet with this metal tube. You fight and fight and fight, all the while the RTV is setting up.

To make matters worse, I'm still not convinced that the metal tube has sealed properly to the back of the water pump.

I spent the entire day getting the car apart. I took off the motor mount, a metal bracket, the timing belt cover. Every time I took something off, there was a bolt that was too long to come out, was frozen in place, had to be drilled out. It appeared that there were goofy pieces of metal shielding bolts at random making sure that you couldn't get a socket wrench in there.

I need another day to get the car back together. I'm going to leave it in the drive way, on jack stands, with a floor jack under the motor. We'll see how long the association takes to complain.

All for a water pump.

I hate this car.

brian

 

Been there, done that. If I remember correctly, I took the plenum off so that I could be sure the tube was installed properly.

 

Don't every buy a minivan with the 3.0. Mitsubishi made that POS and Dodge should kill it. I think the 3.8 is the best. Sell the van and get a 1998 with the 3.8 mine has 310k.

 

The worst water pump to replace is the 2.7L engine. Warranty time to replace a water pump is 6 hours. And it has a timing chain to drive the water pump.

 

Yeah, I guessed that it was a mitsubishi engine. That about rules out me ever buying a mitsubishi car ever again also.

I also considered removing the intake manifold to make sure it sealed. I pressure tested the cooling system right after I put on the water pump. I could hear it hissing. It won't hold pressure now. I'm hoping that he rtv will setup and seal the leak or something, maybe I could put some leak sealer in the cooling system also.

What a piece of crap.

brian