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Water pump woes

The water pump on my renault 19 has started to weep coolant. Not a lot of coolant, barely noticeable except for a small wet patch on the ground if the car has been parked for a while.

First question - is it normal for water pumps to leak a little bit - or is any leakage a sign that the pump is dodgy and needs replacing. I believe these pumps are designed with a weep hole which will drip coolant if any gets past the inner seal of the pump. The idea being that you can see the coolant dripping out which gives you an early warning before coolant destroys the bearings of the pump. Am I correct with this?

The other problem is that the car seems to be devouring water pumps. The pump that's in it now is only a year old. The previous pump was only in it 6 months before it started to leak. Both of these pumps were new, genuine renault parts and were fitted by a very competent mechanic. Anyone have any ideas why they are failing so quickly. PS it's a cambelt driven pump. Could belt tension have anything to do with the failures - by putting strain on the bearings etc.

thanks brian

Reply to
brian doyle
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If it is the pump that shot most likely cause the belt has been overtightened -- if this was to cure drive belt slippage fit a new belt. If QH do a water pump for your car it may be cheaper.

Reply to
AWM

Yes, it does sound like it's on the way out, unless you can trace the leak to the joint instead.

It also sounds as if the mechanic has the wrong informtion about the belt tension, and is putting too much tension on the drivebelt - having it happen once is one thing, but this kind of consistency is more liley to be as I've suggested rather than a series of faulty parts.

It's easy enough to check - find out from a haynes manual or a dealer what the tension should be, and see what the mechanic is setting it to.

PS - I once wanted to find the tighteing torque of the (to me) odd-shaped sump plug on my new Astra - and I gat (from dealers) 14nm (correct), just nip it up, and as tight as you can (the last one from the VX dealership I bought it from ....). All I'm saying is - it does happen...

I wonder if there's a recall on this from Renault ..

Reply to
R. Murphy

The Renault instructions for setting the cam belts involve a tension guage, having done a couple of the diesels the belt felt slacker than the classic turn it through 1/4 of a turn so your mechanic may well be over tensioning the cam belt

Reply to
duncanwood

Thanks lads. I watched the mechanic replacing the pump, and he did use the "1/4 turn" rule of thumb when adjusting the belt tension. He didn't have any manuals or special tools such as a tension gauge.

BrianD3

Reply to
brian doyle

This has been a problem at least since the mk3 escort (CVH) engine was introduced. Nearly every one I saw that needed a cambelt also needed a water pump There really isn't an excuse for it as there is at least one perfectly simple way of tensioning the belt reliably. I think it was a nissan cherry which I first saw it on, You simply undo a locking bolt which allows a spring loaded plunger to tension the belt, then retighten the locking bolt.

Steve

Reply to
shazzbat

Even Triumph aclaims do it that way

Reply to
duncanwood

On the renault 19 there is a belt tensioner (a sort of jockey wheel device) which is used to adjust the tension of the belt. But it gives no indication as to whether the belt is at the correct tension - a separate tension gauge is needed for that.

cheers, brian

Reply to
brian doyle

A friend's wife has a renault Clio. This has happened on that car too. It must be a common thing.. On a related note, I have a Cavalier. The engine in mine does have the revolving water pump affair to tighten the cam belt. Reading the Haynes manual, this was changed in 1993 to an automatic tightener. It looks like an idler wheel on a spring loaded lever. Must have been a problem on Vauxhalls too. ( I had a water pump replaced this year!) Regards.

Reply to
Stu

SNIP

It's what I call bad design.

Oh the delights of the vauxhall eccentric waterpump. Problem with that system was the pump was almost always seized solid in its housing by the the time you neede to change the belt. Then unless you were very lucky the pump got damaged in the process so you ended up having to change the pump anyway, even if you weren't going to in the first place.

Steve

Reply to
shazzbat

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