MR2Fanatic

Well, I just picked up my 944 from the prev owner and it apparently leaked a bunch of coolant onto his garage floor. Thus- he sold it to me. He's not a car guy so he doesn't know what was wrong with the car. The word "bad waterpump" has floated around alot in our conversations. So is there a way to test if the pump is bad? Is the pump driven by the timing belt or an external pulley? I've searched for this and haven't found the answer. Currently the car runs and doesn't leak a drop of coolant. It hesitates and stumbles under throttle though. Any help will be greatly appreciated. I plan on diving into this car tomorrow and start going through all the systems to make sure they operate correctly.

If anyone needs a video of the motor running to hear if something is not right, I'll upload a video tomorrow.

JohnKoaWood

1st, Welcome to renlist...
2nd, pictures are a must..
3rd, I believe the most common failure mode is leakage, followed by more leakage, followed by taking out the timing belt that drives it

Bookmark http://www.clarks-garage.com/

The Garage shop manual is a great tool when getting started..

83-86 have mechanical t-belt tensioner


87-91 have a spring loaded t-belt tensioner


968s have a hydraulic t-belt tensioner


If you notice all 3 year spans have water pumps driven by the timing belt... and on these cars the timing belt is a short life span item (<45K miles), less is better you cannot change the t belt too often, but there have been plenty of occurrences of t belt failure..

Between Clarks Garage and Rennlist you should be in good shape, to help when asking for assistance it is helpful to post details about your car (year, sub model, special info such as modifications) and your location as there could very well be someone local to you who can come and lend a hand...

Good luck and welcome

nh7cy

Water pump is pretty east to find. Just pop off your belt covers (about 5 minutes) and look for the shiny spinning nipple (best way I can describe it without pictures).

The next thing I am about to tell you shouldn't be done unless you're prepared to replace and/or re-tension your timing belts yourself, if you're not, then pay no attention to this.

You can check your water pump by loosening your belts and spinning the wheel.. thing. Pretty self explanatory, bad bearings have a very distinctive feeling. By the way, I'd replace the water pump anyway, along with the timing belts. Water pump goes, timing belts go. Timing belt goes, engine goes.

Replacing the water pump means buying a new water pump gasket and that should cover any leaks provided you make sure all your bolts are tight (but not too tight, aluminum blocks can be fun that way) and you've removed ALL of the old gasket material from the pumps mounting surface.

Other than that, congrats on the purchase and welcome to the list!

Mike C.

If you don't see any leaks from the radiator hoses or heater hoses and the leakage seems to come from somewhere near the front of the engine, a water pump is very likely the culprit.

Spidey944

FWIW the water pump will normally leak only when the engine is not running. IE just after shutting off and the coolant system pressure is trying to get out.

FRporscheman

Take off your upper belt cover. Turn on the engine. Use a mechanic's stethoscope, or a long screwdriver held to your ear, and poke it against the water pump (NOT a moving part!), and if you hear bad noises like whining, grumbling, chattering, etc, then you have a bad pump. Bad pumps CAN leak, but not always.

Recently, my WP failed and it did not leak at all. The pulley seized and the belt was partially slipping on it. Also the pulley was wobbling visibly, so I didn't even need a stethoscope on that one....

75ohm

Go to a local auto parts place and see if they will rent/loan you a coolant system pressure tester. Hook it up to the coolant tank and pressurize... don't over do it... check clark's garage for procedure, I think it's there. If it starts spitting coolant from the pump bearing or gasket, then you know...

MR2Fanatic

Thanks for all the support and information! I worked on the car today and did some research.

Timing belt/balance shaft belt was done 450 miles ago which was in Dec 05. So its been driven rarely as you can tell. I let the car warm up for 15 min so I could try to get the car to leak some fluids. It is bone dry. Nothing will leak from any coolant hose or water pump area. The bad thing is that the radiator fan didnt kick on though. The temp got up to 3/4 before I shut the car off. This could be an easy fix such as blown fuse/relay or bad thermostatic switch. I did put the A/C on and both radiator fans kicked on immediately and brought the temperature down to 1/3.


So I proceeded to remove the upper timing belt cover to inspect the water pump pulley. It doesn't wobble or make any weird sounds. I put my mechanics stethoscope up to the water pump and it just hums along quietly with no crunching, or grinding sounds.

Video of engine running:


pic:


Tomorrow I plan to go to Autozone to rent the coolant pressure tester to see if it leaks fluid anywhere when the system is up to operating temperature.

Maybe the owner thought it was a bad water pump when its a bad hose or fluid came out of the overflow tank??

VOoDOoGTX

man so thats what it looks like with a balance shaft belt

Clint's 944

Fans usually come on just after the third mark so you may want to let it rise a little more to check them. Also, make sure you don't have any air in the system.

nh7cy

I was out on a mountain run once with my old 83' n/a. Engine got pretty hot, spewed coolant all over the place. Most of it came from the expansion tank, never found out where the rest came from but it never did it again. If it turns out you don't find anything, I'd bet the previous owner didn't bleed out his cooling system, coolant backed up and made a mess in his garage.

Sometimes these things just happen.

FRporscheman

LOL, I remember that! It just BARFED out that coolant, we all thought your car was done for that day but it just soldiered on!

nh7cy

Hahahaha, yes, I still have a picture of that somewhere. Good times..

Vonov

Made that poor car run till it puked? They used to do that to me in the Army...

MR2Fanatic

UPDATE:

So I rented the pressure tester and hooked it up. The water pump area is bone dry but the lower rad hose and upper small rad hose were leaking. I fixed the leaks and then pressure tested it again. Its bone dry. This is excellent news. On another subject, can you tell me if my balance shaft belt is too loose? It feels very loose. Here is a video: