Water pump play. How much is too much?

[underscorepatrick]

Hey guys.

2006 v6 180k miles. I’ve been chasing a coolant leak somewhere,I can smell it tough under the hood . All normal places have been checked and parts replaced ,aside from water pump and thermostat . (I don’t want to call it a HG yet) .

When inspecting today,I noticed slight play in the water pump . If I grab the fan clutch I can move it up & down ,maybe a millimeter at most,but definitely play there. No noises .

-Is this much play normal or is the bearing finally giving ?
-would a worn bearing in this location cause my phantom coolant leak? No puddles on the ground


Thanks in advance !

 

[WarChild]

Should be no play at all. What year and how many cylinders?

 

[Dillusion]

0 play.

Try to get a pressure tester and see if you can get any coolant to come out from somewhere.

If not get one of those cheap block testers and see what happen. But I'm guessing with no coolant coming out its the head gasket.

 

[AuSeeker]

As mentioned there should be no play at all in either the water pump shaft or the fan clutch, can you tell it for sure the pump shaft moving or could it be the fan clutch?

That be said/asked, there should be a "weep" hole on the bottom of the water pump housing under the shaft which is there too show when the seal of the pump starts going bad, it will usually start as a slight trickle of a leak and then gets continually worst as the seal get more worn out, you need to try and look from the bottom and see if you see any signs of the pump leaking from that area.

Edit: I see as I was typing there was a mention of possible head gasket failure, look on the VIN sticker on the driver's door jamb and see what the build date is for your T4R, if before 12/05 it is possible that it could be a head gasket, if after that date you should be good as Toyota re-designed the head gaskets in 12/05 to solve the possible head gasket issue.

 

[underscorepatrick]

0 play.

Try to get a pressure tester and see if you can get any coolant to come out from somewhere.

If not get one of those cheap block testers and see what happen. But I'm guessing with no coolant coming out its the head gasket.

Hey thanks for the reply . I did a block test for fumes in my coolant & it was negative . Also did a pressure test with little psi drop over 30min.

 

[underscorepatrick]

Should be no play at all. What year and how many cylinders?

Thank you for replying . Forgot to mention, 2006 v6.

 

[underscorepatrick]

As mentioned there should be no play at all in either the water pump shaft or the fan clutch, can you tell it for sure the pump shaft moving or could it be the fan clutch?

That be said/asked, there should be a "weep" hole on the bottom of the water pump housing under the shaft which is there too show when the seal of the pump starts going bad, it will usually start as a slight trickle of a leak and then gets continually worst as the seal get more worn out, you need to try and look from the bottom and see if you see any signs of the pump leaking from that area.

Edit: I see as I was typing there was a mention of possible head gasket failure, look on the VIN sticker on the driver's door jamb and see what the build date is for your T4R, if before 12/05 it is possible that it could be a head gasket, if after that date you should be good as Toyota re-designed the head gaskets in 12/05 to solve the possible head gasket issue.

I just checked,manufacture date 10/05. Not pleasant to hear.

I can definitely tell it’s the water pump shaft moving up & down.

As for the weep hole,can you see it directly under the truck with the skid plate off?

Thanks for the reply!

 

[Dillusion]

Hey thanks for the reply . I did a block test for fumes in my coolant & it was negative . Also did a pressure test with little psi drop over 30min.

How much psi is a little over 30 min?

If it can hold without moving for about 10 min I say its ok. But this only means its not leaking when the vehicle is off.

I had a Camry with the dreaded head bolt problem. Would not lose any coolant when sitting still and running. But once you drove it around it would lose coolant at a pretty fast rate. Could be the extra load on the engine causing the coolant to get by the head gasket.

 

[AuSeeker]

I just checked,manufacture date 10/05. Not pleasant to hear.

I can definitely tell it’s the water pump shaft moving up & down.

As for the weep hole,can you see it directly under the truck with the skid plate off?

Thanks for the reply!

I'm not sure how easy it will be to see, I have a V8 and I have never had the opportunity to look under there on a V6, only way to find out is for someone that knows to reply...or crawl under and look.

Don't fret too much about the build date/head gaskets it's just a possibility, unless you start getting known symptoms then worry about that, i.e., "waterfall" sounds from the heater core coming from behind the glove box area, fail exhaust gas in coolant test, finding coolant in #4 or #6 cylinder/s when checking with a bore scope, etc...not all early V6s have the head gasket failure, not sure what the percentage is..there is a Poll topic on that subject somewhere on this forum, but there are many on here that have early V6s that haven't had any problems with their head gaskets and some have 200,000 miles or more on their's!