was wondering if any of you fellas could tell me the signs of a water pump going out..

i noticed something very odd today,, that is ,, i started my truck to warm it up and finally when i get in it to start to drive... the temp needle was prolly around 200 (elec fans, and i have them turned up b/c of winter) and i had just luke warm (if that) air coming out of the vents... but i noticed when i started to drive (rpm's rising) the hot air started rushing out... it was nice... came to a stop sign and slowed down... cooler air,,, sped up,, warmer air...

wierd!

coolant levels are fine.. btw

 

I'm wondering if it's a vacuum issue (check valve/leak),allowing the blend door to change position with a change in vacuum and thus mix more/less cold air? Just a thought anyway.

 

Sounds more like slipping belt than bad pump. You stated elec. fans is that for radiator or interior I was unclear. Itcould be a bad termal clutch but sometimes you can hear that when you reve the motor, it will sound like the fan is coming off the the front of the motor. If the belt is fine it could be the impeller on the end of the water pump shaft, but usually if that goes the bearing has gone and the pump leaks water out of the drip hole. I had a similar problem with a power steering pump where I spun the impeler off the shaft and at idle I had no power steering but the faster I reved the motor the better it worked. When I changed the belt the pully from the pump came out with the shaft I wouldn't have known otherwise.

 

When my pump went bad I just had a bad bearing grind noise on accel around 1800-2200 RPM. Heard that, stopped and checked the play in the WP bearings and I could move my fan about 1/4" up and down.

 

Ya its sounds like a vacum...mine does that as well sometime. When mine went bad(a few weeks ago[:@]) I heard a bearing going out and I could wobble my fan back and forth a bit..

 

elec fans for the rad

i just fixed a vacume line going to the t-case,, and i could actually hear the blend door open and slam close when that ling was bad..

thanks for the input guys.. ill post back to what i find!

 

sounds almost to me like you might have some blockage i the heater coil.. like its starting to gum up.. i would check that after you check the other stuff

 

Well to answer the original question there are little bleeder holes that start leaking when the pump goes bad.