coolant leak from crank pulley... help

[pacefarm]

a bit confused by my situation.. searched a bit, but didnt find anything specific. working on the car lately, and when leaving parking spots, i notice small drops of coolant accumulating on the ground. jacked the car up, and the coolant is leaking from around the crankshaft pulley area. usually gathers up just below it, on the belt. havent driven the car since fall, so quite a bit has leaked already. i'll admit that i dont know much about the coolant path throughout the engine, and if its even possible for it to leak from the pulley.. but, i did a auto-5 speed swap this summer, and accidentally loosened the crank pulley while trying to loosen the flywheel. but i did tighten it to factory specs... any help would be greatly appreciated.. btw, my motor is a ka24de.

thanks!

[projectRDM]

Water pump is leaking.

[pacefarm]

meaning? is this cause the pulley got loose, or do i need a new water pump?

[S14DB]

the water pump is above the crank pulley behind the fan. It's leaking out of it down onto the crank and then down onto the ground.

[pr240sx]

You need a new water pump.

[pacefarm]

crap..... i mean thanks for the replies guys.. any possible way to replace the pump without pulling the motor? is it common for a waterpump to go around 80k miles on 240's?

[aznpoopy]

the waterpump is right on the front of the engine... you don't need to pull the motor to get to it.

80k seems early, but it happens.

[pacefarm]

thanks again for all your responses guys [thumbsup]

ps: towards the end of summer my car started whining, kinda like it was supercharged, but not as loud. at times louder than usual. i posted about that issue before, and was told that it might be my alternator. the whine increased with the revs. sometimes there would even be light smoke from the engine bay, but not excessive at all. could this be the waterpump giving up? could it whine like that? or is it still the alternator. i did check the power-steering fluid, like suggested, and its fine, plenty of it. any ideas?

[BlackS14]

I highly doubt it's the water pump making any noise. I'd check into the alternator on that one. And yeah....on the undersie of the water pump there's what's called a "weep hole". It's designed to slightly leak letting you know that your seals within the pump have gone bad...meaning as others have said...new water pump time.

It's real easy to change out. If you still have it on, remove the fan shroud. Remove the four 10mm nuts holding the fan/clutch assembly from the water pump pulley. Then either loosen the swivel bolts on the power steering pump or the alternator (forgot which) to get some slack in the belt to in turn enable you to remove the pump. Undo all the bolts holding the pump in, take it off....clean the area (old RTV) off the timing cover, then install new one. Of course making sure you have enough RTV to prevent leaking.....reinstall everything else....good to go.

Hope that helps...and is clear to understand...lmao

-Bill

[pacefarm]

I highly doubt it's the water pump making any noise. I'd check into the alternator on that one. And yeah....on the undersie of the water pump there's what's called a "weep hole". It's designed to slightly leak letting you know that your seals within the pump have gone bad...meaning as others have said...new water pump time.

It's real easy to change out. If you still have it on, remove the fan shroud. Remove the four 10mm nuts holding the fan/clutch assembly from the water pump pulley. Then either loosen the swivel bolts on the power steering pump or the alternator (forgot which) to get some slack in the belt to in turn enable you to remove the pump. Undo all the bolts holding the pump in, take it off....clean the area (old RTV) off the timing cover, then install new one. Of course making sure you have enough RTV to prevent leaking.....reinstall everything else....good to go.

Hope that helps...and is clear to understand...lmao

-Bill

you rock! thanks a lot, very helpful info.

[BlackS14]

Not a problem man.....hope all goes well with the fix.

-Bill

[projectRDM]

Water pumps can make a whining noise since there's a bearing inside, though if the whining would have continued for some time unless the belt was too tight and was loosened at some point. Either way, replace the pump and then continue on with any other noise issues.

[95zilvia]

Change your waterpump, then see if the whining is still there.
One step at a time.