shumax

My friends Maxima is using coolant. He has about 130,000 miles on the car and has done only the timing belt and NOT the water pump. We recently flushed and filled the radiator and flushed the block as well. The car now uses about 24oz every 10days. The car has full power and is not smoking at all--neither white, blue or black smoke. The oil is not milky at all. Therefore, I am ruling out a head gasket leak. I am starting to think that the car has a leaky water pump--although I would have thought that would have made the oil milky/frothy too. He is almost positive that the car is not leaking from the radiator either.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
SHUMAx

NYCe MaXiMa

iTrader: (9)

sorry, I can't comment on the subject or your question,
just wanted to say you'd have more luck reaching DBM at the 4th gen forum... Rarely, if ever have I seen him here...

bill99gxe

iTrader: (1)

I'm assuming 3rd gen here since you mentioned timing belt.

The following is an excerpt from your favorite friend, Jeff92se:


Check the H20 pump housing's weep hole. See if there are stains.

If yes, then the seals are going bad. If not maybe one of your hoses or etc...

To find the weep hole, just look around the casting of the pump, it should be right below or very near where the shaft goes though the casting.

Wiggle the pulley to see if there is alot of play. If so, then the pump is toast.

I'm betting on the water pump.

Eric L.

The water pump on 3rd gens have a weep hole...if the pump seals have gone bad, coolant will leak out of the weep hole. That was the way I could tell my old VW's water pump was going south.

4th gens have an "internal" water pump. It also has a weep hole I believe, but you will notice leakage at the timing chain cover instead.

Is the coolant at the overflow tank being used up, or is the radiator drying up without using up the overflow coolant? If the overflow tank is full but the radiator is empty, the answer is simple...check the radiator cap. I've seen a case on an 88 Camry where the radiator was bone dry but the overflow tank was literally overfilled. Turned out that the radiator neck was warped, preventing the cap from holding a pressure.

shumax

The radiator is full, but the overflow tank goes bone dry--the radiator is still full, but not as full. There are no leaks on the overflow tank either.

Thanks,
SHUMAX

got rice?

iTrader: (2)

if the overflow tank isn't showing anything, it doesn't mean the cooling system is loosing coolant. It just means the radiator is not boiling over. As long as there's coolant in the radiator you're fine.

If there is loss of coolant, locate the leak (if there's one). Pressure test the radiator cap and find out if the system is operating at normal pressure. If not, there's a leak in a hose or elsewhere.

shumax

I am going to have another look at it tomorrow in the morning when he comes over. I know that when I first looked at it I checked the oil--it was fine, not white. Then I looked for the water pump and say the pulley and tried to wiggle it--it was tight and would not wiggle at all. I have NOT looked at the hoses though--ran out of time. My thought was that if it were leaking that it would show on the ground under the car---my buddy told me he hasn't seen anything as best he can remember. I am nto sure that I believe him though. I told him to slide some cardboard under the car for the night and look at it in the morning.


Thanks again!

Now I am off to get that damn rotor off of that Lumina!

SHUMAX