QuestionMy car shut down recently and I was told it was my fuel pump and had it replaced. More recently my car was overheating from one stop to another and I was told by a mechanic that it was my head gaskets that were bad. I would put anti freeze in the car and when the car came to a stop and the engine was shut off it would all run out. So I began filling the reserve with water and still the same thing and the car would over heat and now the car overheats while driving. The belt broke on my car recently and yet another mechanic looked at the car and stated it is not the head gasket it is the water pump which is bad! Help lost confused and just about broke!
AnswerHi Wilson,
It would be helpful for me to know which size engine you have (3.3 or 3.5L) as one has a timing belt (which will break) and the other has a timing chain (which will not). So please tell me which.
It wasn't clear to me if it is a timing belt that is broken (3.5L) or an external drive belt (3.3L) because one or the other of those drive the water pump. The water pump could indeed have been leaking (and now perhaps seized up which would break the belt) rather than a head gasket. It it were a head gasket it would not all or mostly all leak out when stopped, rather it would most likely leak into a combustion chamber (and come out of the tail pipe as white smoke when you next started the car OR show up as frothy oil. If the water pump leaks the water usually comes out at the front of the engine even when it is not running.
This all leads me to suspect you have the 3.5L and that your timing belt is broked and that the water pump needs to be replaced. The two parts are both replaced in the same repair job, but it is not a quick/cheap repair. It is something that happens with all engines that have timning belts, sooner or later, so it is not a sign of an unusual problem. You would want a competent shop to do the repair at a fair price, if possible.
One other thing you might want to do is readout the memory of the engine controller by using your ignition key:"on-off-on-off-on and leave on" doing that in 5 seconds or less elapsed time. Then watch the check engine light, which remains 'on', to see it begin to flash, pause, flash, etc. Count the number of flashes before each pause. Then repeat the process to be sure you get an accurate set of flash counts. Then group the counts in pairs in the order of appearance to form 2-digit numbers which are fault codes which will tell us if anything else is wrong (which may explain the earlier shut down which may not have been the fuel pump) to consider at this time. The last fault code is always 55 which means 'end of readout'.
Please let me know what you learn and which engine it is, if it isn't the 3.5.
Roland
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