trying to find a mysterious coolant leak, could it be a water pump going bad?

[Ed Kellock]

I had a similar situation and went in to check w/p leakage.  What I
found was a loose timing belt (unrelated but fixed) and that the leak
was coming from the small length of rubber hose that routes coolant to
the turbo.  I had to dismount the p/s pump to gain access.  Wasn't
really a bad repair at all.  After tightening the timing belt by
readjusting the w/p, I fortunately did not create a leak there either.

Ed

On 1/2/08, Bernie Benz <b.benz at charter.net> wrote:
> Alan,
>
> I've had that cold engine startup clatter for years now, and
> attribute it to belt idler bearings, not WP.
> WPs seldom fail because of bearing failure, so they don't normally
> seize. Rather, almost always failure is because of the coolant face
> seal which is independent of the cartridge bearing. So, isolate the
> leak and fix what's broke.
>
> Bernie
>
> On Jan 2, 2008, at 1:44 AM, <alancordeiro at att.net>
> <alancordeiro at att.net> wrote:
>
> > Over the last few days, the car has begun to drip coolant from
> > under the engine pan.
> > I have not been able to pin-point the source.
> >
> > Last night I recalled that there has been a recent startup clatter
> > that has been bothering me.
> > It started about two weeks ago, begins at the first cold engine
> > start, and goes away after a
> > few minutes of running. I suddenly came to me that perhaps the two
> > are related and I have
> > a water pump going bad. If this really is the case, and the pump
> > seizes while operating,
> > I could lose the engine......
> >
> > Has anyone else seem such a problem. The water pump and idler
> > pulley were
> > replaced along with the last timing belt swap about three years and
> > 55k miles ago.
> > The miles have been mostly freeway, the timing belt looks brand
> > new...I figured
> > I could stretch this change out another 10k miles beyond the 60k.
> >
> > Has anyone else seen a similar issue. and found a coolant leak not
> > related
> > to the water pump. Else has someone had a water pump go bad....what
> > are the symptoms when it does? Nothing in the archives describes
> > this case,
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Alan
> >
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