Hi,

I had the water pump on my 2002 Grand Caravan replaced yesterday. I friend did it for me and charged me $100.00 which is a good thing. However I noticed that the coolant was just a little bit low, he stated that since the system was drained, that was the reason for that so I put a bit of coolant again last night and was low again today but like I say nothing big and there was no indications of coolant on my garage and I placed a white blanket to check it in the morning and no problem. Another funny thing is that when I first started the car after the pump was replaced, I could hear water running somewhere in the engine from the driver seat. Will that be the system re-filling itself? Will that be why coolant went down a bit?

Your answers will be appreciated.

 

Any time you open the cooling system to change the water pump, thermostat, heater core or flush the system you need to fill it up, turn on the heater, and get the engine hot enough to open the thermostat. Once the thermostat opens you'll notice the coolant level drop. Top off the radiator and fill the coolant return bottle a little past the cold mark. The sound you heard was probably air trapped in your heater core.

 

Thanks a lot I feel safer now. That means my friend's explanation was acurate.

 

This may take a few heating and cooling cycles. The overflow bottle will drain a bit as the engine cools ovenight or whatever--it will not refill the radiator untill it has a few cool down cycles.