Cold (-10deg sCience) start after work last night. Heard a mechanical rattle from the front end, intermittent belt squealing, sluggish power steering. Too dark to see anything at the office so I drove home to the same lovely noises. In the driveway I was able to see the fan doing the flippy-floppy dance. Apparently, I need a new fan clutch.

Luckily, it is warming up to -4deg. sCience tomorrow (about 24deg Fake), so my son and I will spend some quality cursing together in the freezing cold!

I was thinking I'd replace the water pump while things are apart but I'm not too keen on being drenched in coolant at those temps. I may buy one just in case (once the fan is apart, I can't go get a pump) and evaluate once the fan is off. I will replace the belt too.

 

I'll be chasing a coolant leak myself. 2011 4.7 with 98k miles. I guess something finally had to break.

I can smell coolant outside and have signs of drips around the front of the motor. Suspect the water pump but haven't gotten my eyes on the weep hole yet.

 

Well that sucked!

Turned out that it was the water pump.

Removal of the fan clutch was the only problem. FYI, get the tool with the pins to hold the water pump pulley while you spin the fan off. I didn't, couldn't find a way to hold the pulley. I ended up grinding a slot in the pulley and putting a pry bar in the slot to hold it. Other than that, it was uneventful.

2.5 hours start to finish. New pump, new belt, flush and fill coolant. By far the longest time was trying to get the fan off. And I broke all of the push rivets that hold the splash panel on between the rad and the front support. 8 for a dollar at the Canadian Tire.

 

Same here. Bad water pump. Actually the pump was OK. It was leaking from the gasket near the top right of the pump. Bolts were tight. Chrysler had already replaced it under warranty about two years back but didn't see any issue with the way the gasket was installed. It may have just been thin and didn't fill the gasket channel very well.

I already had the spanner wrench for the pulley. My gotcha ended up being the nut on the fan clutch. It is something like 1-7/16 which I didn't have.

 

I have an 18" adjustable wrench in my truck ALWAYS for changing trailer ***** on my ball-mounts.