QuestionThis vehicle has 113,000 miles approx and we have owned in it for the last 8 years. It overheated on my 7 mile commute from work. Coolant was streaming out the weep hole on the side of the engin block. My husband owns/operates his own auto service, so he is fairly knowlegdeable and resourceful and despite the daunting task, he removed the water pump. The impeller was completely broken loose from the shaft. There were no apparent cracks in the block and as I wrote earlier coolant appeared to only be leaking from the weep hole. After reassembly, the engine runs fine, sounds great; no knocks, no miss. But coolant is still leaking steadily from the weep hole. Is there any way that there could be crack in the engine water jacket (water journals) that may be leaking out this weep hole? Or it is merely a bad part. We used a remanufactured water pump. (after all, it is just the "wife's car", not a paying customer, ha ha.
AnswerHappy New Year, Nelleah!
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Hi Nelleah,
I have no knowledge of the possibility of another source of weepage than the waterpump, but that seems unlikely. There are two weep holes associated with the pump body proper, and two different locations for weepage to be spotted. At about 6 o'clock of the pump proper is the primary passage and its leakage is fed through an internal passageway to an external hole located just below the thermostat housing on the front. It may well be that passageway is blocked, which then leaves only to the secondary passageway to release the leak at the rear of the block (see below). So I would try to clear out the primary passageway with a flexible but stiff wire to be sure that one is open.
It is a matter of 'degree' according to the manual ("It is normal for the water pump to weep a small amount of coolant from the weep hole {black stain at weep passageway}. Do not replace the water pump if this condition exists. Replace the water pump if a heavy deposit or a steady flow of engine coolant is evident from the primary weep passage. This indicates a shaft failure and pump must be replaced...Be sure to perform a thorough analysis before replacing water pump." Ref:'03 manual for JR (Sebring) with 2.7L, page 7-43.
So it is your judgement as to what is normal and what indicates a pump seal failure. I guess it depends upon how much coolant you are loosing per 100 miles of driving which you might want to assess.
The secondary weep passageway is at about 11 o'clock on the pump and it discharges into a external hole on the backside of the 'front' of the valley between the two cylinder banks (where it can't be seen), and then flows along the valley and out a hole at the rear of the engine at the valley (where it can be seen).
So the designers at Mitsubishi thought they needed to have two weep passages to clear out weepage so that it wouldn't pressuize the area and result in coolant being forced into the oil system. That intrusion led to early engine failures due to foaming of the oil. So you would want to watch for whether you find foam on the dipstick or the oil filler cap. Absent that, and with a tolerable coolant loss rate, my inclination would be to leave it alone.
Roland
PS I will be interested to learn what your husband concludes about the situation. My opinions are based only upon what I have read, while he has been "there" and "done that".
