Water pump woes

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.

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 ..

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

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

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

Even Triumph aclaims do it that way

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

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.

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