Last week the car stopped just before getting in the driveway and was steaming a lot from under the hood. Noticed a leak under the car towards the left side of the engine. We suspected the pipe leading from the water pump so we took it off and turns out it had rust holes. Changed the pipe and the o-rings and figured the problem was solved, but the same thing has happened again today.

The temperature gauge is always normal, but the radiator is mostly empty. It seems to only steam up so much when I have the heater on. I'm hoping its not the water pump because I've heard that's difficult to change.

Any advice or help would be great.

Perhaps you need to replace the radiator. Cost about $300. Then again it could be the water pump.

The radiator was just replaced recently and there doesn't seem to be any leaking around that area.

Have you checked the heater hoses?

Have you checked the heater hoses?

or all the hoses? as mine wore through the lifting hook on the bottom rad hose.
wasnt fun when she blew 20k's out of town when it finally went

The car's temperature gauge only works if there's sufficient water in the system. If there's insufficient water to circulate and keep the gauge covered, your engine could be history by the time the gauge tells you the engine's hot.

Perhaps you need to replace the radiator. Cost about $300. Then again it could be the water pump.


300?? spend 80 bucks getting one from mal and take the 20mins to fit it yourself thats what i did

OP, you need to pressure and monoxide test the car, really can not expect an answer on a forum for such a thing as can be so many things

Had a TE in the other day, car had similar issues to yours, turned out he got it a little to hot and has blown the heads gaskets or cracked heads, he did not bother fixing it in the end due to cost vs cars condition.

Thanks for the advice so far. We pressure tested it after taking off a few parts and found that it's definitely the water pump. Now we're having some trouble loosening the timing belt. Which pulley loosens the belt?

Please stop and get this done by a professional. If you are asking questions like this you clearly lack both the tools and knowledge to fix this and may end up costing you dearly

Please stop and get this done by a professional. If you are asking questions like this you clearly lack both the tools and knowledge to fix this and may end up costing you dearly

+1 not worth risking your engine to save the 200.00 or so it would cost in labour to do the job ( well thats based on 3 hours in my area)