Coolant from the Weep hole

[demarpaint]

I just went through this past week with my Aerostar. It started as a slight drip, gradually worked itself to a nice leak. I kept it off the highway, and limited its use until I could get it replaced.

If the pump lets go on the highway in the heat wave we're having here it wouldn't be pretty. Get it fixed ASAP!

 

[widman]

The weep hole is there to keep the coolant from getting to the oil. If it plugs from debris, the coolant will make it to the engine and ruin your bearings and other parts.

As it is, before it clogs, you are risking an overheat, blown head gasket and $1000 in repairs from 5 minutes or less of not watching the temp gauge and pulling over.

You are betting against the odds if you leave it in.

 

[SteveSRT8]

please explain the first line in your post.

That one escapes me completely. You know much about cooling systems I don't!

 

[XS650]

Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
please explain the first line in your post.

That one escapes me completely. You know much about cooling systems I don't!


Your water pump is leaking internally, the small hole on the bottom is a safety measure that allows the leaked coolant to drain out before it goes someplace where it will do more damage, like into the water pump bearings.

It is also there to alert you of a leak, it won't keep up with the leak as the leak gets worse. Odds are it is already killing the water pump bearings

 

[SteveSRT8]

Originally Posted By: widman
The weep hole is there to keep the coolant from getting to the oil. If it plugs from debris, the coolant will make it to the engine and ruin your bearings and other parts.
Originally Posted By: XS650
Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
please explain the first line in your post.

That one escapes me completely. You know much about cooling systems I don't!


Your water pump is leaking internally, the small hole on the bottom is a safety measure that allows the leaked coolant to drain out before it goes someplace where it will do more damage, like into the water pump bearings.

It is also there to alert you of a leak, it won't keep up with the leak as the leak gets worse. Odds are it is already killing the water pump bearings



DUH!

I got all that, thanks for the explanation.

You might want to read the post I was questioning again!

Hello?

 

[HangerHarley]

Originally Posted By: widman
the coolant will make it to the engine and ruin your bearings and other parts


Pardon me sir, but i am with SteveSRT8 here.

I always thought if a Water Pump seized or went, it would do two things, perhaps three:

1) Horrible Noise.
2) Overheat (Turn engine off first sign of trouble, coast to Stop, remove cap, let sit two hours, dont keep driving..)
and the Third thing: Snap the belt.

I had a car with a non-functioning Water Pump but the Pulley still spun. With Cap off the Expansion Tank, the coolant just stayed Stationery. Needless to say, it would overheat, and could only be operated for 5-15 minutes.

Head Gaskets fail due to Overheating, not 100% failed Water Pumps, correct sir?

Water Pumps put coolant In the engine. And through Radiator, and Hoses, and Coolant Passanges.

That is all they do..................

 

[rpn453]

The weep hole tells you that the grease in your inboard water pump bearing is being washed out and displaced by coolant due to a seal leak, so that bearing may not last much longer. As bearing wear accelerates and the shaft develops more play, the leak may become more severe and/or the bearing may seize. The engine oil is not in danger of contamination.

If it's a timing-chain-driven pump and the weep hole was completely plugged up, I suppose the leaking coolant could potentially go past the outboard bearing and its oil seal to contaminate the engine oil. That seems pretty unlikely to me, but I won't say it's impossible.

Originally Posted By: HangerHarley
I had a car with a non-functioning Water Pump but the Pulley still spun. With Cap off the Expansion Tank, the coolant just stayed Stationery. Needless to say, it would overheat, and could only be operated for 5-15 minutes.


That sounds like an impeller problem. It could have been broken or severely eroded.

 

[charbaby]

My leak was comming from the weep hole in the water pump.

 

[mjoekingz28]

I'll start by saying I dont know if what Im saying is right or not, but its something I've always worried about.

If you dont have a coolant level light and you lose all your coolant, then the temp light won't illuminate because you have no coolant to gauge the temp of. So you're in trouble.

 

[Kestas]

Not really. The steam in the cooling system may trip the temp light. I've experienced this with some cars that had low coolant.

 

[ArrestMeRedZ]

I had a major weep hole leak out of a water pump on a FWD 3.8 Buick. Coolant would pour out starting a couple of minutes after shutdown.

I went through a lot of pain replacing the water pump (found out later you were supposed to remove an engine mount and jack the engine). The new pump had the same problem. Replaced the radiator cap, and the problem went away.

After shutdown, uncirculating coolant in the block would boil, creating excess pressure. With the cap not releasing at the proper pressure, the coolant had to go somewhere. It chose the weep hole. The new water pump lasted about 70k miles after that.

 

[Kestas]

As a temporary measure, one could loosen the radiator cap so it doesn't build pressure, and limp around until the problem is fixed. This also works for any other coolant leaks.

 

[mechanicx]

I think the hot metal that the coolant temperature sensor is screwed into will conduct heat to the sensor and also the hot vapor and air in the water jacket. I don't think coolant has to be contacting the sensor for it to peg the temp gauge while overheating.

 

[rpn453]

Originally Posted By: mechanicx
I think the hot metal that the coolant temperature sensor is screwed into will conduct heat to the sensor and also the hot vapor and air in the water jacket. I don't think coolant has to be contacting the sensor for it to peg the temp gauge while overheating.


Agreed. In the absence of coolant, the thermocouple will still measure the temperature of the air around it. Response time will be longer in gas than liquid, but I've seen the temperature gauge rise very quickly after start-up when there is air in the system, so I think it would react quickly enough.

 

[The Critic]

Yes, the water pump needs to be replaced, but there's no telling when it will catastrophically failed. I probably drove around for months with a small leak from the weep hole on my Saturn's water pump as it only leaked a pint every other month.

If you car has over 100,000 miles, you may want to use this opportunity to perform a complete cooling system overhaul as preventive maintenance. Replacing the radiator, thermostat, radiator cap and hoses now may prevent a roadside breakdown.

 

[demarpaint]

Originally Posted By: rpn453
The weep hole tells you that the grease in your inboard water pump bearing is being washed out and displaced by coolant due to a seal leak, so that bearing may not last much longer. As bearing wear accelerates and the shaft develops more play, the leak may become more severe and/or the bearing may seize. The engine oil is not in danger of contamination.

If it's a timing-chain-driven pump and the weep hole was completely plugged up, I suppose the leaking coolant could potentially go past the outboard bearing and its oil seal to contaminate the engine oil. That seems pretty unlikely to me, but I won't say it's impossible.

Originally Posted By: HangerHarley
I had a car with a non-functioning Water Pump but the Pulley still spun. With Cap off the Expansion Tank, the coolant just stayed Stationery. Needless to say, it would overheat, and could only be operated for 5-15 minutes.


That sounds like an impeller problem. It could have been broken or severely eroded.


Agreed. I think the possibility of coolant contamintaing the oil would occur if the engine overheated and ruined the head gasket/gaskets. Then the likelihood of oil and water mixing is greater.

Either way, a leaky pump should be replaced.

 

[mjoekingz28]

Originally Posted By: Kestas
Not really. The steam in the cooling system may trip the temp light. I've experienced this with some cars that had low coolant.


Word!

Just had my water pump go out and dump all the coolant out. After the low level light lit up I stopped the car and the fan ran for a few minutes even though the radiator was empty.

 

[doitmyself]

Glancing thru these posts, I'm not sure if this question was resolved about weep holes....I'm still trying to get my daughter's Sebring 2.7 eng. squared away (worst POS engine I ever worked on).

Anyway, here is a quote from a repair article: "It’s a terribly designed engine in that when the water pump shaft seal goes (as they are prone to do), the leak dumps coolant into the crankcase and fouls the oil. Chrysler seams to think that a simple weep hole is sufficient to catch any leakage and dump it outside, but, I’ve read too many stories about that being inadequate."

Of course, this is specific to this engine.