water pump - how hard to swap?

[declasm]

Last weekend my FD freaked me out. I drove it over to Tesco, bought some 99 super and drove home. about 200yds from my house the temp gauge suddenly jumped to 127-135 for about 15 seconds before going back to a more normal 88. I got back to my house parked her up and didn\'t look again until today (new baby duty means very little car time!)
All week I\'ve been reading up on water seal failure, champagne tests and all that fearing the worst, This morning I went and had a look in the filler cap and the AST - seems like there was not much in either and somewhere I\'ve lost loads of coolant! I put in about 2.5 litres and started her up - she runs fine, no pressurised pipes, no champagne bubbles but there\'s a steady leak which seems to be coming from the water pump. hmm.

So - how hard to replace the pump? It looks quite easy to get to - do I have to remove anything big to get it out? is there any other jobs I should do while it\'s off? anybody got links to guides etc?

cheers.

[Ada7]

To get to the pump i think you have to just take off the belts and maybe the water pump pulley. Then you undo the bolts that hold the pump onto the main housing and it just pops out
If its just a leak it could be that you just need a new gasket.

Adam

[MaLicE]

dunno if its the same on rx7\'s but alot of cars on the waterpumps they have a small hole that when the waterpump fails the water comes out this hole as a warning...

[Jono FD3]

dunno if its the same on rx7\'s but alot of cars on the waterpumps they have a small hole that when the waterpump fails the water comes out this hole as a warning...

Yea, correct, but the thing is, by the time you spot it your normaly 100 miles from home with a overheating engine :2eek

[philiwily]

Easy job but easier if you undo the 4 bolts holding the pulley onto the pump before you slacken the belt.

[declasm]

Yea, correct, but the thing is, by the time you spot it your normaly 100 miles from home with a overheating engine :2eek

yeah -glad i just popped to tesco!

[ad4m1]

easy enough job to do but yeah make sure you take the pulley off with the belt still on..unless you got an impact gun. dont foget to remove all the old gasket which there will be loads of stuck to the housing. may as well stick a new thermostat in while the housing is off. apart from that not much else you can do
have you got a new pump to put on? i got a brand new pump, housing and filler neck with new thermostat if ur interested

[declasm]

i got a brand new pump, housing and filler neck with new thermostat if ur interested

doh! just bought a new pump!

Am I going to have to renew all the coolant in the system too?

[SmbFD3S]

You should also be aware that the water pump housing/body is held on by the water pump via the 3 studs that come from the front plate.  You may (if you disturb it) need to replace the gasket also that connects this to the front plate...  Personally i\'d replace it anyway just to be on the safe side, but it does mean removing the whole pump housing/body....
 
I\'d renew the coolant too while you\'re at it yeah, just for added assurance that you know the temperature it will withstand now it\'s winter.

[declasm]

halfway through the job - taking my time, waiting for some better weather and some more daylight. I\'ve taken the pump off - it started out easy enough but noone mentioned that I\'d have to loosen the alternator so I could move the bracket that was holding on the bottom-right bolt so that foxed me for a bit. anyway now I\'d dreading having to somehow remove all the bits of old gaskest stuck to the housing before putting the new pump on. incidentally the old coolant is yellow/green, I\'ve bought the \'advanced\' anti-freeze from halfords which I think is red - am I going to be alright putting that in? can someone tell me the cooant capacity of the FD?

[AtomicRex]

When someone tells you the capacity....not at the garage so cant tell you at the moment...use a 70:30 mix.
 
If you need a replacement gasket I have a few in stock at the moment.

[declasm]

Got a gasket - just want to make sure I scrape the old one off properly first! cheers for the mix advice.

[declasm]

this has been dragging on for such a long time! i\'ve been desperate to drive my car but with the pump off and all the snow there\'s been little progress until last weekend. gasket scraping was a bit time consuming until my neighbour (who builds aston engines!) gave me the right tool! got the faces clean then used a bit of blue loctite gasket maker along with the new gasket (extra security) and reassembly went quite smoothly. couldnt run the car until today as the battery was completely flat after sitting for six weeks but i charged it, plugged it back in and all was good again nothing had seized in the silly weather so i took her round the block and the temps kept solid at 83-84 went a few miles over to sainsbury\'s garage, looked for any leaking or dripping and so far everything looks fine! yess! my car works again!

[RobMatthews]

not risking going to tesco again then lol

[declasm]

not risking going to tesco again then lol

that\'ll be the true test!