I was changing a water pump today on my girl's s13 after it broke down. Ended up having to change the fan clutch as well. You may not need to do this but it is a good idea to check and make sure it still spins with ease as this could cause problems to your water pump which is what happened in her case. The bearings went bad on the fan clutch causing it to not spin true, therefore the pressure from the fan caused the water pump shaft to break and therefore render itself useless. As you will see from a couple of the pictures the water pump fins were broken inside. Also a good idea to once you have it apart try and put some water in the radiator and make sure it has no leaks while you have everything apart. I also found this out the hard way. I put it all back together and being under so much heat in her particular situation I guess my girlfriend let it get a tad too hot and popped a hole in the top of the radiator where the aluminum meets the plastic. So just go ahead and check while you are there, only takes a second.
Alright to start the tools you are going to need are as follows.
1. 10mm wrench (you can use a ratchet with a 10mm socket and a small extension, but you will eventually need a 10mm wrench to remove the bolts that holds the fan clutch and pulley on the water pump)
2. A set of pliers for removing hose clamps, or screwdriver if you have aftermarket hose clamps
3. 12mm wrench and 12mm ratchet with socket.
4. 14mm wrench or 14mm ratchet with socket.
5. A bucket or some kind of oil pan to catch the coolant.
6. New water pump and water pump gasket.
7. Sandpaper, a screwdriver, or some kind of gasket scraper.
8. Tube of gasket sealer.
(To perform this repair, make sure car is fully cooled down as all components related to the cooling system can get very very hot.)
1. Drain the coolant out of the radiator. You can accomplish this by loosening the drain plug on the bottom of the radiator. It is usually a small butterfly looking plug on the drivers side of the bottom of the radiator. Remove the plug and remove the radiator cap. Let all the coolant drain out of the radiator and put the cap back on the radiator and put the plug back in the bottom as to not make a mess.
2. Take loose the air intake tube connecting the air filter box and the intake manifold, and remove the 2 small vacuum lines on the side of the intake tube and put them to the side.
3. Take loose the top radiator hose on the passenger side of the car. Loosen the clamp and move it back and forth until it pops loose from the radiator and while it is off inspect the inside of the hose for corrosion, it may also need replacing.
4. On the drivers side to the right of the radiator you will need to remove 2 vacuum lines from the charcoal canister. Pull back the hose clamps with some pliers and pull the hoses loose and place on the passenger side of the car out of the way. Now you are going to want to take your pliers underneath the top of the fan shroud and release the clips that hold the line of wiring going across the top of the fan shroud. You can unhook these wires or pull them close to the engine out of your way. Pull back the clamp on the small line connected right beside the radiator cap for your coolant overflow tank and pull it to the passenger side of the vehicle also out of your way.
5. Now you are going to want to remove the fan shroud. Make sure nothing else is in your way and remove the line you just removed from the coolant reservoir tank from the fan shroud on the passenger side of the vehicle. Remove the small vacuum line from the back of the fan shroud on the drivers side connected to the charcoal canister. Now loosen both bolts on the top of the fan shroud that hold it to the radiator, then locate the 2 bolts one on the bottom of the fan shroud right above the radiator drain plug and on the bottom passenger side of the fan shroud right above the lower radiator hose. After you have removed all four bolts work the fan shroud back and forth around the fan but be careful not to break it as it is a tight fit.
(At this point the engine bay should look something like this)
6. Remove the 4 10mm bolts from the front of the fan connected to the fan clutch and pull the fan out of the engine compartment.
7. Next you want to loosen your belts, on my particular car I do not have an a/c system so I am not sure how the belt is removed for it but I will continue with the way mine is setup. The first belt to come off is going to be your power steering belt. Loosen the front bolt on the belt tensioner located on the drivers side of the vehicle but do not remove the bolt. Now loosen the other 12mm bolt that you see in front of you to allow the tensioner to slide to slide and loosen the belt on the engine. Once that is loosened remove the belt and set aside. Next you are going to remove the alternator and water pump belt. This can be accomplished by loosening the 14mm bolt on the bottom of the alternator bracket located on the bottom passenger side of the vehicle, then you will loosen the front 12mm bolt located at the top of the alternator bracket, and just like other tensioner loosen the side mounted 12mm bolt to allow the alternator to slide loose and remove your belt.
8. Now you are ready to remove your water pump. First thing you need to do is loosen all bolts on the water pump. There should be five....once you do that pull the water pump off, you may need to pry on it a bit to get it to come off. I would also put the bucket you used to drain the radiator under the water pump as coolant is going to run out from the engine.
you can inspect the water pump for problems....as you can see in these pictures the fins were broken off inside the water pump, if this happens you should also check the inside of the engine where you took out the water pump to check for any damage. Luckily in my case there was none.
9. Now you are going to want to clean the are where the water pump was bolted to the engine. You can use a piece of sandpaper or some kind of scraper or even a screw driver but you want to get it as clean as possible so the next gasket will have a nice fit.
10. Now that you have the old water pump off, remove the 10mm bolts that hold the fan clutch and the pulley on to the water pump and be careful not to loose the lock washers. Transplant these 2 parts to the new water pump.
11. You have cleaned off your mounting area and you are ready to install your new pump. First thing you want to do is put a little bit of gasket sealer around the edge where the water pump will be seated on the engine. After you do this put your water pump gasket into place. Now run another line of gasket sealer along the edge of the water pump and place the water pump on the engine taking good care to line it up properly. Once you have a nice fit and everything looks to be sealed correctly you can install your water pump mounting bolts back into place in a star pattern so that it makes a nice fit and seal against the engine.
12. After this is completed you reattach the fan and work backwards to put it all back together.
13. Once you have all the parts back together fill up the radiator with coolant and squeeze the coolant hoses as you are doing this to ensure that coolant reaches as many parts of the motor as possible. You will want to add the coolant slowly as it will have to trickle down inside the radiator and does take a few seconds. Its a long process of pouring and waiting for it to drain down....once you are satisfied that it will not take any more coolant start the engine and allow the vehicle to start warming up. After you start the motor check to make sure everything is spinning properly where you installed your water pump and nothing is leaking. Also keep an eye on your radiator and leave the cap off. The coolant level will go down as the water pump feeds coolant into the engine so periodically keep adding coolant until the car is warmed up and the coolant level is good.
14. Put your radiator cap on, make sure there are no leaks again, clean the engine compartment so that you won't have a long lasting stench of coolant and take it on a test drive. Make sure to keep good watch on your temperature gauge and if any problems arise let the car cool down before driving back home.
15. If all is well sit back and enjoy a job well done. You probably just saved yourself 300 bucks in labor charges at the shop and probably at least another 50 bucks in mark ups for parts.
I hope this is of help to someone, if you have any more questions feel free to send me a pm and I'll get back to you as quick as possible. Do realize if your car has been driven very hot you could have internal engine damage and this may not totally fix your problem but consult your mechanic if more problems arise.
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