Waterpump Replacement

[RoGuE]

It would figure that less than 2 months after flushing and changing the coolant something would happen.

A couple days ago I noticed a large puddle under our 2002 Suburban with the 5.3l Vortec with 116k miles. There is coolant running down the whole underside of the engine, so I figured the any part that was wet closest to the front would be the culprit. I tracked it to the front side of the engine, right around the center where the water pump is. I brought it by a dealer who took a quick look at it and said it is most likely the water pump. Do I need to get a pressure test to confirm?

And if it is confirmed to be the waterpump, is that something I can do myself? I have moderate mechanical experience (transmission flush and pan drops, spark plug replacements, coolant flush, oil changing, diff fluid replacement) but don't want to get too involved in something I can't finish. The procedures I found on another site don't seem too bad. It's just removing all the hoses, removing the fan, and replacing it?

 

[The_Eric]

Likely either the water pump or the gaskets. Either way, get both new. Really, the only special tool you'll need is an air hammer and the wrench adapter to get the fan unscrewed from the pump hub.

 

[DrDusty86]

it's not a bad job. It is fairly straight foreword, with decent mechanical knowledge it would save you a TON of money doing it yourself. FWIW, you should NOT need any flushes or cleaners, just new antifreeze and DISTILLED water about 50/50 and your set..... if the 5.3 was never neglected that is all thats needed. Flushes can do more harm than good
Dusty

 

[RoGuE]

Is getting air tools necessary? I don't have any air tools. Just a ratchet, some combo wrenches, and a 1/2" torque wrench.

Edit: Yeah, the main reason I want to do this myself is an estimate for a water pump replacement was $500-600. Sounds crazy expensive to me. But that was only one dealer.

 

[Herz]

Water pump on a 5.3 is super easy. Simple set of sockets pliers for the hose clams and a screwdriver or two. Drain the coolant, undo the hose clamps and remove hoses from pump, unbolt the pump and remove.

Obviously you will have to remove the serp belt prior, and if you dont have an electric fan undo the fan before you remove the belt.

 

[Jimmy9190]

I am not very familiar with Chevys but most water pumps have a weep hole in the bottom side of the pump housing. When the pump is bad and/or the internal seal goes bad it will leak coolant out of the weep hole. You may need an inspection mirror to get a good look at the weep hole. Judging from what you described and the mileage on your truck, I would guess it's a good possibility the water pump is leaking. It's not super easy to R&R a water pump, but it is not too terribly difficult, either. I guess just compare what a shop would charge you against how long it would really take and how much trouble it would be for you to do it yourself.

I have done a few water pumps myself, none were too difficult. My buddy and I changed the water pump on my old Celica on the side of the road at a little country store near Ellijay, Georgia. That was back in the 80's, on the day after Christmas.

Personally, I would never pay a shop to do what I could do for myself, and no way in the world would I pay 500-600 bucks for someone else to do it. You can use the Internet and Haynes Book/Chilton probably has full directions for the job too. The weekend is almost here, if you have the time and can take your time and not have to rush the job, go for it. Just my 2 cents there.

 

[tomcat27]

I worked on cars for years without air tools. pulling transmissions, a million water pumps.... you might wanna get a chiltons book for your truck first.... $20 or less and can sometimes save you some headaches.

 

[RoGuE]

Yeah, I have a Haynes manual for it that I actually completely forgot about, lol. Does anyone think I should still get a pressure test done to confirm it is the waterpump?

Also, whether it is the seal or just the waterpump it seems like it would be a good idea to change both at the same time, right? Where is a good place to buy a quality replacement? We plan on keeping this thing a long time.

 

[Jimmy9190]

The seal is an internal part, inside the water pump. I believe the seal is for the bearing on the impeller shaft. I would not spend money on any tests on the cooling system. If you can see the coolant dripping out of the weep hole, then you will know for sure the pump is bad. You traced the leak back to the water pump area already and if you can get a good look at it, you will probably see coolant coming out of the weep hole. There is not really any other place it could be leaking from, based on what you described so far.

As far as replacement pumps, it really depends on your budget and parts store preference. Personally I have had good luck lately with the Duralast parts from Autozone. Some others here have not, and they will be quick to tell you so. Napa water pumps should be good quality too. And you have O'Reilley's there in Atlanta too. I don't know about their parts quality but I sure was very impressed with the O'Reilley store I went to when I was in Atlanta visiting my family back at Thanksgiving. We don't have O'Reilley's in this part of Florida where I live. You might want to check with the Chevy dealer on your new pump too. Your OE pump lasted 116K, OE would not be a bad way to go, provided the price is right.

 

[Noey]

First, after 100k miles, it's the H2O pump. She's lived a long and fruitful life, bless her heart!

Second, unless you really know what you're doing and have a lot of self confidence my advice is to not try this....it always sounds easier than it is, esp. when you're talking to guys on boards like this who actually know what they're doing and have done it before! But, if you haven't, then a 'simple' job can turn into a nightmare. Simple case in point: What will you do with the highly toxic anti freeze that comes squirting out of the radiator after you remove the drain cock? And have you ever removed and replaced a serpentine belt?

I don't mean to sound like a [censored] here, but knowing your own limitations is priceless, the $500 isn't that much, when you consider the parts must be at least $200+.

 

[RoGuE]

Originally Posted By: Jimmy9190
The seal is an internal part, inside the water pump. I believe the seal is for the bearing on the impeller shaft. I would not spend money on any tests on the cooling system. If you can see the coolant dripping out of the weep hole, then you will know for sure the pump is bad. You traced the leak back to the water pump area already and if you can get a good look at it, you will probably see coolant coming out of the weep hole. There is not really any other place it could be leaking from, based on what you described so far.


I honestly have tried my hardest and cannot get a good look at the waterpump from either the top or bottom. Maybe I need to invest in an inspection mirror...



Originally Posted By: Noey
First, after 100k miles, it's the H2O pump. She's lived a long and fruitful life, bless her heart!

Second, unless you really know what you're doing and have a lot of self confidence my advice is to not try this....it always sounds easier than it is, esp. when you're talking to guys on boards like this who actually know what they're doing and have done it before! But, if you haven't, then a 'simple' job can turn into a nightmare. Simple case in point: What will you do with the highly toxic anti freeze that comes squirting out of the radiator after you remove the drain cock? And have you ever removed and replaced a serpentine belt?

I don't mean to sound like a [censored] here, but knowing your own limitations is priceless, the $500 isn't that much, when you consider the parts must be at least $200+.


Money is EXTREMELY tight right now. So any place I can save is good. I agree with knowing your limitations, this thread was kind of to find out whether it is too much for me to handle or not.

I have done a drain and flush of coolant, so I know how to handle and dispose of that. I have never removed a serpentine belt however.

 

[Jimmy9190]

Just for the fun of it I checked the Autozone website, but I don't know the specifics for your Suburban, so I checked on a water pump for a 5.3 motor, 1500 Series 2 Wheel Drive. It's $120.00 for a new Duralast pump with a lifetime warranty and it includes the gasket set with the pump. It looks like it comes with a new pulley already installed, and has the metal pipes on it to reinstall your radiator and heater hoses already pressed on the body of the pump too. The Napa pump is $124.00 for a new pump, and looks to be about the same as the Autozone pump. The Napa pump looks to be a better quality part, but it's hard to tell from a picture online. From the looks of it, the thermostat is mounted to the face of the pump housing, so it would be a good idea to replace your thermostat at the same time while replacing the pump.

With the coolant, you recently did a flush and fill, so if you can, buy a new clean drain pan, catch the coolant when you drain the radiator and re-use it. Otherwise, catch it anyway, put it in milk jugs or some other suitable container and take it to the local dump for recycling. Or see if a local garage will recycle it for you. Just be sure to wash any spilled coolant off the ground where you do the pump replacement. It's very poisonous and animals and kids are both attracted to it.

If you have the tools and the time, go for it and fix the truck yourself. If you are fairly mechanically inclined and have your Haynes book it should not be that difficult. Plus you have the BITOG community here to help you out of you get stuck.

If this was my truck I would be all over a water pump replacement. I would get an early start on Saturday morning and take my time with it.

 

[Jimmy9190]

As far as removing the serpentine belt, you should have an automatic tensioner right there in the same area where the water pump, alternator and idler pulley are located, on the front of the engine. Again, I know nothing about Chevys but on the front of the tensioner pulley there should be either a hex-head bolt you can put a wrench on or a square drive recess that you can insert a 3/8" or 1/2" drive ratchet into. Either way, use the right tool and just move the tensioner inward to release the pressure off the belt, slip the belt off one of the nearby pulleys and let the tensioner go, then remove the belt the rest of the way off the pulleys. Looking at the Napa website, your tensioner has a hex head bolt on it. There should be a diagram on a decal under the hood to show the routing configuration to reinstall the belt. If you don't have one, just draw a picture of the pulleys and belt route yourself before removing the belt.

You can very likely do this job yourself and give yourself the personal satisfaction of saving a lot of money and knowing the job is done right.

 

[RoGuE]

Thanks so much Jimmy and everyone else. I now have the motivation and courage to feel good about doing this. haha

I'm sure the difference between Autozone and Napa is negligible but I might be leaning toward Napa.

Also, when draining the coolant, whether I re-use it or not, I have to drain everything from the bottom of the radiator, and that should be good? I imagine a little more might come out from the engine block itself when the water pump is removed.

 

[Thax]

This should be a DIY job you can tackle . Im not a Chevy guy but it shouldnt be more than draining the coolant , removing the serpentine belt and then between 4-8 bolts on the water pump itself.I may be wrong so consult a Chilton's manual. If you decide to take this on yourself , do not buy a remanufactured water pump. I see way to many comebacks at work due to failure compared to zero for new water pumps, avoid the temptation to save $20 bucks and get the new one and you will have saved yourself headache in the future.

 

[Herz]

One thing that came to mind, you did a flush, did you remove the thermostat when you did it? If so check there for the leak as well, off the top of my head its two 10mm bolts.

 

[Jimmy9190]

Draining from the bottom of the radiator is the understood way to drain the coolant. It's a good idea to put a couple of drain pans under the engine, because you are correct, some coolant will leak out of the engine once you remove the water pump.

While you are at it, this would be a good time to check your uppper and lower radiator hoses, radiator cap and heater hoses very carefully and replace them if need be. Same for the serpentine belt and tensioner. Tensioners have a spring inside them that gets weak with age. With the tensioner mounted on the engine (and engine off), if you can move it more than about half an inch by hand, it's a good time to replace it.

 

[Fazzone]

RoGue, I had a similar issue with my truck this summer, the make or break part of replacing it will be whether or not you can get the fan/clutch assembly off the old pump. I spent a lot of time to get mine off and finally took the pump and fan off together so I could put a vise-grip on the pulley to hold it in place. New pump comes with the pulley so no need to worry about damaging it. Also, make sure you have some rtv silicone around to help hold the gaskets on during assembly. It's a pretty straightforward job, just take your time and you should be fine. Now might also be a good time to replace the belts too while you're at it.

 

[RoGuE]

I didn't remove the thermostat because on these year Suburbans the thermostat is "integrated with the water inlet".

 

[doitmyself]

This You tube video claims to cover the 5.3 water pump: