Water pump leaking?

[EddieV4runnin]

Anybody else have their water pump start leaking with 60k miles or less?? I recently installing my supercharger and noticed the water pump leaking from the weep hole. Part isn’t that expensive, but seems odd that it would fail at such a low mileage.

 

[<<<<]

What is the weep hole for?

 

[CutthroatSlam]

What is the weep hole for?

On the bottom of the water pump (all waterpumps) there is a small hole about 3/16” diameter. There is a seal to keep the coolant inside and when the seal fails the coolant gets to the bearings. Hot bearings spinning fast start getting coolant on them will destroy the bearings soon, and when the bearing locks up the shaft breaks and the fan assembly goes flying usually destroying the radiator, the shroud, battery, and whatever else it can play ninja against spinning at a couple thousand rpm. So they put the weep hole in the dead spot as an indicator to let you know something is wrong before one bad part becomes many expensive bad parts.

I would say 99% of the time coolant leak from bottom of water pump is needing water pump replacement. But it can be leaky lower radiator howe at the waterpump connection, or similar issue.

P.S. I facing this issue currently on my '99 K2500 Diesel Suburban. I have the parts, but need my wife to return from a funeral in CA (I'm at our ranch in Montana) so I have the second car in case I need additional parts. I will also replace the timing chain while I'm in there. Last did this job 10 years ago.

 

[Captsolo]

Repace the water pump with OEM. Amazon.com: Aisin WPT-802 New OEM Water Pump Kit: Automotive

 

[Iceman2430]

I put my SC on at 83K. Decided to change the pump while I was in there. Old pump looks brand new, spins with no noise, hesitation or grit.

However, still happy I did it.

 

[ElectroBoy]

60K may be a little early to start failing. I’ve replaced three water pumps on previous vehicles after the first indication of seepage, usually around 80-100K. I consider it kind of a routine replacement part. Replace before complete failure. It’s good to crawl around underneath, you caught it early.