The water pump in my 85 maxima is going... going... almost gone! I am thinking of trying to change it out by my self. I have changed water pumps on cars before, but never on a Nissan. I changed one on a 76 Monte Carlo way back when. I am just curious how difficult it is to change it out. I know some of you have done this on your Maxima's. I do not have a repair manual, not sure if it is really worth it. I changed the one on the Monte with out a manual, of course that may have been easier. The parts are fairly inexpensive, and I could save about 200 bucks if I do it on my own. Money is kind of tight now (new house), so if I don't have to spend 300 I won't. Any way... How difficult is it to change, really?

Thanks in advance!

Chad

 

Replace the following with your water pump.
1.) Timing Belt
2.) Drive Belts
3.) Timing Belt Tensioner
4.) Cam and Crank Seals

If your going to just replace your water pump...
1.) Drain the coolant out of the radiator.
2.) Drain the coolant out of the engine block by removing the drain plug next to the alternator.
3.) Remove the drive belts.
4.) Remove the a/c belt tensioner assembly. (3 bolts)
5.) Remove the crank pulley...the crank pulley 95 percent of the time on Nissan never come off with ease.
So, have a couple of prybars handy and rock the crank pulley off carefully and or use a pulley remover or tie rod remover works good sometimes that is loosen the bolt but leave the bolt in the hole and apply light pressure and remove carefully.
6.) Remove the lower timing cover.
7.) Remove the water pump...Make sure to drain the block as much as possible.
8.) Make sure to keep the timing belt dry.

Good Luck!

 

Thanks for the information. I have also been told it is a good idea to change the cylinder head temperature sensor. I am not sure I am going to attempt this or not. I might have a friend help me. The car is getting old, and I am not sure how much $$ I want to put into it. I paid 1300 for it about a year and a half ago. Actually, it has been a good car to this point. It feels like we are starting to do the nickle and dime thing. I planned on keeping it running for another year. But if this keeps up, not sure if I will. I did just spend about 400 in tires, so that just adds to the decision. My last maxima was an 82 and it had 280,000 on it when I traded it off. I was hoping this one would go that far too!

Oh well... thanks again for your help!

Chad

 

I've never changed the water pump on my 1st gen -- this may not be relevant to the 2nd gen -- compare the outside side of the original pump with your new one. I changed the water pump on my other car. The housing on the new one was thinner -- I almost tightened the bolt right into #1 cylinder. My neighbor did on his Ford F150 Truck. He made Autozone pay for his new engine block.

 

Hey man-

I know nothing about cars and I changed the timing belt and water pump about three months ago. Make sure you budget about 6 hours to do the whole job (that's what you get charged for in mechanic's labor time). Also make sure that you have an assistant to help you take off the crankshaft pulley- it was very difficult to do and would be extremely difficult to do without an assistant. If you don't have a manual, I would suggest taking a few pictures of the engine from the top and from the side when you take off the splash guard to make sure you put everything back on in the right order. Some of the bolts are difficult to reach with a standard ratchet, so make sure you have the right kind of ratchet to get in the tight places. Other than that, just make sure you find Top Dead Center on the crankshaft pulley and the distributor and line up the timing marks. Good luck!

 

I just wanted to thank everyone for all their input! It has all been very helpful. I was going to have a friend help me with it, hopefully he still can. I was very surprised on the price of the parts, very reasonable! I am curious about the timing belt tension adjuster. I had one place tell me that I would not need to replace it. I assumed this was similar to the adjuster used on the main drive belts. The guy told me that it wasn't. So what does it look like? The part costs about $42, the most expensive part of all I was quoted.

Yeah!!!! I am finally a Newbie!!!!!

 

You should do the timing stuff also. If the pump has leaked onto the belt, it is not good...that's one of the biggest reasons for timing belt failure on the z31 engine.

 

Hi everyone! I wanted to give you a quick update on the maxima... I did not change the water pump, it looked like it had been changed recently. We did change the timing belt and tensioner. The tensioner was completely gone! There were bearings laying in the bottom of the lower timing cover. I guess you could say I was lucky! The car is running now... but not very well. Starts great! Idles fine. give it a little gas... spit sputter pop! continues to do this until it gets warmed up... could it be the timing?