It's been slowly leaking for awhile now, but today it dumped brown water out like a bucket, when I shut it off facing up hill.
You can't repair a water pump but replacement is not that hard. A Chiltons manual is the best way to go if you decide to replace it yourself. If this is your first repair, take pictures at each step to make it easier to put back together. The toughest part you should have will be retightening your belts and that isn't even that bad. replace them while you have them off and you will save yourself headaches later on.
It is really very simple,but get a repair manual to guide you. Only problem I had changing one was trying to align new water pump , gasket and holes all at the same time in a confined area. Here is a tip , get two long bolts and remove the heads,screw them in two mounting holes temporarily, as studs, to align the whole thing then remove them and install the correct bolts after you have secured water pump in place. Good luck
you probably hit the nail on the head with the head gasket, but i believe there is also some kind of a heating device that helps to stop the water from getting into the engine. if the heating device breaks water can then condensate and get into the oil. i had to replace this device on my 93 grand am so i know it exists on some cars and trucks. ask around about this heating device. if it's the head gasket there is a STOP LEAK product that you can try from any auto store such as abc auto, pep boys etc. i've used it and sometimes it works sometime not. depends on how bad the leak is.
water pumps last less than 100k miles, get a replacement pump ,it should come with a gasket set. you may need to removed the fan shroud. Remove the serpentine belt (remember how it went on!) unbolt the old pump,you'll loose a lot of fluid ,so don't let Fido drink it. Now reverse the process and don't loose any bolts or drink beer while your doing this!The brown stuff you saw, was water .be sure you refill with coolant or the seals on your new pump are gonna get thrashed. Good luck kid.
Your best bet is to purchase a manual on OKorder and repair it yourself. Haynes repair manuals detail the correct procedures step by step and if you are handy with tools and not afraid to get your hands dirty, you can save a ton of cash by repairing things like this yourself. With the help of the manual you can probably do the job just as well as the local repair garage.
