How do i figure out if its water pump or rad hose?
Thread Starter
|
Registered User
Joined: Jun 2012
Posts: 1
Likes: 0
How do i figure out if its water pump or rad hose?
hey guys. First post! Rocking a 1999 dodge stratus here with the 2.4l dohc engine. Things got 97K miles on it.
Now I'm a poor college student going for a degree in electrical engineering..needless to say, I'm pretty poor..but on the plus, do have the cable and software to get error codes.
Down to business. Ive known for awhile she's been loosing coolant here and there, and have refilled the resivour once in a while. Id see a collection of drops here and there, nothing i was too alarmed about.
But the other day i rolled into the parking garage at school and noticed, darn, this thing is loud. The front fans were on full blast. I looked at the temp gauge and it was about 2/3rds up and climbing. Ok. Thats not normal. So i shut it off, went to class, grabbed my more car savvy buddies and a few hours later looked at it. My coolant res was normal, but apparently, no coolant in the radiator :-O Not good! Also, there was a nice puddle right underneath!
So we filled at the radiator cap, i drove it the 20minutes home..and it acted just fine. Temp gauge bobbed up n down here n there, but other than that, nothing terrible and it was never really more than 1 dot above normal.
Parked in a clean spot in the driveway and within an hr was a nice little puddle. Oh joy. But my res was actually more full than when started. Ok, we added a lot to the radiator.
Well my buddies suggested could be the water pump on the timing belt, and I've seen in the junkyard what happens when a timing belt goes, so i parked it..and am now sadly driving the deathtrap ford windstar...
I noticed while it was sitting some more coolant leak, which makes me HOPE its a line leak and not the dreaded water pump.
My question to you guys, how can i figure out if its the water pump? I have a buddy bringing me ramps tomorrow so i can get under there and get the splash cover off and have a look see. Any tricks of the trade?
Based on what i've read here, with my mileage, i should be having the timing belt changed as well as the water pump. I just had a complete brake job..so if i could DIY it temporarily, tahtd be fantastic. The cost of the timing belt change I'm hearing, would not be cheap.
The only other thing thats ever gone wrong on this car is the input speed sensor on the transmission, which wasn't that bad of a fix to be honest.
Thanks in advance guys. Id love to get my dodge back! Going to a soccer mom van with no...guts is just disheartening!
Now I'm a poor college student going for a degree in electrical engineering..needless to say, I'm pretty poor..but on the plus, do have the cable and software to get error codes.
Down to business. Ive known for awhile she's been loosing coolant here and there, and have refilled the resivour once in a while. Id see a collection of drops here and there, nothing i was too alarmed about.
But the other day i rolled into the parking garage at school and noticed, darn, this thing is loud. The front fans were on full blast. I looked at the temp gauge and it was about 2/3rds up and climbing. Ok. Thats not normal. So i shut it off, went to class, grabbed my more car savvy buddies and a few hours later looked at it. My coolant res was normal, but apparently, no coolant in the radiator :-O Not good! Also, there was a nice puddle right underneath!
So we filled at the radiator cap, i drove it the 20minutes home..and it acted just fine. Temp gauge bobbed up n down here n there, but other than that, nothing terrible and it was never really more than 1 dot above normal.
Parked in a clean spot in the driveway and within an hr was a nice little puddle. Oh joy. But my res was actually more full than when started. Ok, we added a lot to the radiator.
Well my buddies suggested could be the water pump on the timing belt, and I've seen in the junkyard what happens when a timing belt goes, so i parked it..and am now sadly driving the deathtrap ford windstar...
I noticed while it was sitting some more coolant leak, which makes me HOPE its a line leak and not the dreaded water pump.
My question to you guys, how can i figure out if its the water pump? I have a buddy bringing me ramps tomorrow so i can get under there and get the splash cover off and have a look see. Any tricks of the trade?
Based on what i've read here, with my mileage, i should be having the timing belt changed as well as the water pump. I just had a complete brake job..so if i could DIY it temporarily, tahtd be fantastic. The cost of the timing belt change I'm hearing, would not be cheap.
The only other thing thats ever gone wrong on this car is the input speed sensor on the transmission, which wasn't that bad of a fix to be honest.
Thanks in advance guys. Id love to get my dodge back! Going to a soccer mom van with no...guts is just disheartening!