Vikter

My Maxima has been leaking coolant. It seems to be dripping off the oil pan and onto the black plastic cover it has in the front of the car under the engine. It's always a small amount and never overheats, but I wanted to fix it anyway.

I removed the radiator, flushed the system, and replaced the upper and lower radiator hoses just to be on the safe side. (after all, they are pretty old)

It is still leaking. I assume it is coming from the weep hole on the water pump, but i can't find it.

I have a haynes repair manual, but the picture is tiny and it shows what is should look like after removing a cover.

Where is the water pump?

maximus_pr

iTrader: (3)

under the timing chain cover its very hard to replace it

jhay

iTrader: (2)

I have a 95 max and I'm leaking antifreeze the same way you are. It's a little seep and I can't trace where it's coming from. The water pump is located inside the timing chain cover and from there it's inset into the block. If it's weeping from the water pump I think it would weep from the cover which I don't see. It's also possible it could be the intake or head itself. I'm still trying to figure out my leak. If you have any luck positively identifing your leak, please share it.

Thanks in advance
Jim

Stephen Max

iTrader: (59)

The water pump is located behind a small cover that is on the timing chain cover on the passenger side of the engine. There are two covers, actually, the one towards the front of the engine is the water pump cover, the other is the timing chain tensioner cover.

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....ighlight=water

Vikter

Thanks for doing the search Stephen Max.

It looks like I have a project for this weekend. ; ) I'll let you guys know how it turns out.

dynas

Great info. , Stephen Max. Thanks.

My maxima (95 GLE 187k miles) has been leaking coolant for about 1 month. It does not leak very quick. I add about 1 qt of coolant every week. I think it's the water pump or the o-rings. Is the coolant going to leak into the engine if I don't fix it soon?

I think I will try to fix it. Any precaution I need to know before I start?

Vikter, please share how your weekend project turned out. If you can come up with a pictured instruction, it will be fantastic.

I will probably do it in 2 weeks. Will take some pics and share my story later.

Thanks to you, the great guys on this forum.

Jeff

Stephen Max

iTrader: (59)

The weep hole is situated between the two o-rings on the waterpump, so if water leaks past the first o-ring it will exit via the weep hole. There won't be any pressure to push coolant past the second o-ring. In my case, the engine would leak coolant only when the engine was cold and clearances were larger due to thermal contraction.

dynas

Stephen Max,

Do you have the part number for the timing chain tensioner? I have experienced rattling noise for a while and it may be a good time to fix this when I do the water pump?

I got part numbers from maxima.org service bulletins:
13070-31U02 Tensioner, timging chain.
13091-31U01 Timing Chain slack guide.

I also callled jerryromenissan and got a different number:
13091-31U26 TENSIONER ASSEMBLY

Which one is correct, or either one would be OK?

Thanks.

Jeff

Stephen Max

iTrader: (59)

You just need the tensioner and not the guide, so I would get 13070-31U02. It should be around $50. The TENSIONER ASSEMBLY is probably both together.

Mishmosh

iTrader: (3)

Man, just got done with my water pump change. It was a bear from start to finish. There is just hardly any room to move! Maybe I should have taken Stephen Max's advice of moving the power steering line away, but that a/c is so obtrusive. Just loosening and tightening all those bolts in such a tight area was the biggest challenge. Also, I could not make some slack of the timing chain so I had to remove the tensioner.

The whole shebang too me 5 freaking hours. It was the most frustrating car job i have ever done. I would easily rather do a clutch than the water pump!

The only question I had about the water pump was that the new one had two black O-rings instead of a colored one to denote the outer O-ring. I know the inner and outer are different but these O-rings looked almost identical. One was slightly beefier and had a white dot on it. I put that as the outer one although I don't know for sure if that is correct. Anyone know? I hope I didn't screw up! I will sell the car before I repeat that procedure again!

flashover

Thanks for the info, i also have the same problem. But not all of the time. Hmmm

dynas

Here is the two part numbers I got from JerryRome nissan. Are they the right one? If you search on their website, it says they are for 2000-2004 maxima.

2104931U02
2104931U03

Also, do I need to remove the belts? I see the belt tesioner is so close to one of the screws that are holding the water pump cover.


Thanks.
Jeff

Mishmosh

iTrader: (3)

It definitely helps to remove both belts. At minimum you will need to remove the a/c belt because the tensioner pulley and bracket need to be removed--as you said, they are in the way.