Engine/Transmission (1994 - 1998) Waterpump warning heads up

[SDrake]

Just a heads up. My original waterpump gave up the ghost catastrophically at 270K miles. The reason I am posting this is that there was no warning like a small leak at the seal to allert me that things were needing attention. If your truck is high milage with original water pump you should just change it. It is the easiest water pump change imaginable. Remove two bolts and out she comes. Pop the new one in place and torque two bolts.



I just happened to have checked the fluids one morning (don't do this very often) and then drove about 3 miles to my first stop of the day. Huge puddle of coolant under my truck formed fairly quickly where I stopped. So much, I just knew I had a radiator failure since hoses had recently been changed. It was the water pump. The pump pulley had about one inch of up and down play when i removed the belt and pieces of metal were laying on the ledge just below the pump. One of them looked like a roller out of a roller bearing. I don't know if that thing has roller bearings or not. The housing was too hollowed out to learn anything. When I poured water in so I could drive home it just ran out the pump as quickly as I poured it in.



If that had happened some day when I headed out with my travel trailer I would have been on the interstat a few mjiles down the road with a badly overheated engine unless you get ample steam warning before it destroys itself. I doubt I would have noticed the guage with the water loss so fast.



I would be interested in hearing what the track record of these engines is with sudden water loss.

 

[AWeiman]

i lost the water pump on my 01 at 140000 dragging a trailer load of hay. i also had no signs of a failure coming. it made a huge mess, steam everywhere, and coolant was all over the inside of the hood. got water/antifreeze all over the altenator and ruined that as well. i was about 3 miles from home, drove it on home including up a big hill and the temp never got over 200 degrees. kinda scary though when all of a sudden steam starts pouring out of the hood.

 

[Bob4x4]

When there is no coolant in the system the temp gauge is not accurate... ... . you are driving blind as far as true temp goes in that situation.

 

[rrl989]

By coincidence, I just received my new water pump today from Geno's. I have no pump issues at 155K, I just planned to change it out to prevent what some others have gone through, my worst scenario is hauling my camper and having a breakdown traveling out through NYC in heavy (usaual) traffic. Thanks for sharing your experience !

 

[GrantP]

When there is no coolant in the system the temp gauge is not accurate... ... . you are driving blind as far as true temp goes in that situation.

I'll second that. I didn't tighten up the hose clamp enough after replacing the hoses. I was on a busy freeway and suddenly got a strong smell of antifreeze, before I could pull off the highway the temperature had started to rise, then fell all the way down to "cold". If there is no coolant in contact with the sender it doesn't work. That was about 50k ago, no damage done.

 

[TD52]

I read in Diesel Power that even if your water pump does go and they say it may ... you can make it to a place to get it fixed by driving slow ... never over 30 or below 1800 rpm

a Diesel will not get hot

they had to replace a pump and radiator I believe and hoses ... it was on a columnists truck ... he had 2 vehicles down and remembered that a Diesel will not get hot if run slow . . so he did just that . . made it back from the parts store and replace all then went back to get the parts to fix his other one

 

[JDKammin]

The water pump in my 04 went out a couple of days ago. The truck has just under 70,000 miles on the odometer. I bought my replacement water pump a farm tractor repair shop. There are many 5. 9L applications in the farm sector.