My friends car is a 1997 jeep wrangler. The belt broke and she took it in to get it replaced and they told her metal from the pully that broke got into the water pumpand they have to replace that to? WTF? it makes a squealing noise and they want to charge her another 300 for that! we just don't understand how that could be if the pump isn't even leaking?
A pump doesn't have to be leaking to be bad. But that doesn't really make a lot of sense that parts from a pulley could could get into a sealed system either. Loud squealing is usually from misalignment of the pulley to the belt. Meaning they aren't exactly in line with each other. I also don't see how a pulley broke if a belt broke. Unless there's more to it than what you've said here. It's possible that the water pump ceased and caused the belt to break in the first place. I wouldn't want to second guess a mechanic on a problem like this without seeing it or having more information about what happened. But it does sound a bit on the fishy side with breaking pulleys.
No that's a bunch of b.s. if the pulley was broken you be able to see it- and in order for it to get in the pump- it would have to be leaking somewhere- water pumps put out a lot of pressure... But as long as the jeep never overheated before the belt broke the water pump is fine- my opinion, find a new mechanic...
I don't think you wouldn't necessarily know if the pump is leaking. It would just make the car overheat because the coolant wouldn't get circulated. The reason it costs so much to have a water-pump replaced is because it is buried deep in the engine bay near the timing belt and it takes several hours to replace it. The actual cost of the water pump is probably under $100.
The only way to get metal into the water pump is if the bearing when bad. That was the cause of the belt failure. The water pump needs to be replaced. The pulley is outside of the housing itself. If it had broken, the pieces would have fallen onto the ground not gotten inside the pump.
Well like someone else has mentioned the squealing usually comes from the round pulley that the belt rides on maybe in your case some metal has damaged the idler puller on your water pump and that would definitely give you a consent squeal. the price to replace your water pump is very excessive the part at any over the counter parts store ranges from 30-45 dollars the labor too do this on a jeep is 2.2 hrs @ the shops hourly rate which also varies but 45-55 hour isn't unreasonable... so on the high side of these figures it should be about 120.00labor 45.00 parts so a bill of $165.00 would be more appropriate......but if you don't make the repairs knowing it still has a problem you might void any type of repair warranty on your current repairs already completed...hopefully this has helped you somewhat...jimboz
