Help. 2003, 5.9l durango. I have a coolant leak. The leak appears to be on the lower pulley, passenger side. I can't be 100% sure of this, because the leak hits the belt and sprays everywhere. The car is overheating, and makes a terrible aquealing noise when I accelerate. Could this maybe be the water pump? Is there a way to diagnose this? How hard is it to self-replace a pump? Please, any suggestions?

 

it sounds to me like the pump is going out if you have coolant leaking from the center of the pump pulley and it is overheating, add onto that the squealing and my first thing to do would be replace the pump

 

+1 Shrp

Does your fan have any back and forth play in it? If so, the bearings in the water pump are shot. The water pump on the 5.9L is not too difficult to replace just make sure you replace the bypass hose while you're there.

 

Great, thanks for the info. I will check the water pump again to be sure thats it. To be perfectly honest, I am not even 100% sure what the water pump is, let along, being sure thats the piece I am checking, but I am gonna give it a shot.