Safe to drive with a leaking water pump?

It should be ok, my last Audi A4 had a slight water leak for the whole time I owned it, just when it says low coolant just top it up, or you could try adding some sealant, like RADWELD etc, people will come back and say how bad it is for the engine, but it's worked ok for me when I had no money.

When was the timing belt last changed? that's the most important thing.

Think about it as a calculated risk, personally I would use some sealant and forget about it, but it's your choice :)

It can get worse very quickly.

Ronald

It may be ok to drive it & keep topping it, up, but the worst case scenario is you loose all the water & seize the engine, this will cost more to fix :-) what size engine is it? the 2.0 ABK engine is very easy to work on,

Steve.

It's a pretty good size leak, a steady drip that leaves puddles of coolant running down my driveway. So would the coolant be getting onto the timing belt, or why does my mechanic think it will break the belt? I only ask because the shop that does my car wants to do the front end job with new t-belt/water pump for a grand. I talked to a Goodyear Gemeini and they said they could do it for about $550, so I might just take it to them for half the price.

what engine type/size is it?

Steve.

It should be a regular 2.3 or 2.2 L 5 cyl, i guess.

Ronald

it's a 2.8 V6

I got the model wrong, it's actually a 90 and not 100...sorry about that

The timing belt was last changed around 65,000 miles ago. I'm asking this for a friend, that's why I was a little confused on models. I think we're just going to order the parts from

Sounds like a perfect plan :)

The timing belt will need doing around now anyway, so get it all done at the same time, and $550 seems like a fair price.

Timing belts don't mix well with either oil or coolant & at 65K miles its probably time you changed it anyway. Not familiar with that engine but if the TB also drives the waterpump (as they do on some VAG engines) then you definitly want to get it looked at. If the pump is on its way out & were to sieze on you it will more than likely break the belt (or at least cause it skip a few teeth).

I.

Not at all a car expert but I used Radweld on a leaking Peugoet 205 radiator and it worked for the next few years until I sold the car. (It was quite a flow coming out of the front of the radiator after a minor collision but it did work very well)

When you change the belt and waterpump be shure that all rollers touching the timingbelt is changed, and the thermostat too, it is cheap but very tricky to change with the timingbelt in place.

Greetings Aksel