how far have you driven on a bad water pump

I now know I have a bad water pump its making noise,but not leaking,it started more just today after I bleed or burbed the system it ran cooler at 165f,but after 1hr of driving today the noise was squelling and churning,with a yard stick I put it on the water pump and then all over the engine the alt,air cond.,and it was most diffently from the water pump,I'm going to change it out next weekend,but have any of you heard the water pump going out and knew you had to get home what was your experence

 

I was about half way on the first leg of a 100 mile round trip, when I really started to hear the crunching. I could have turned back, but pressed on.

Made it there and back home in one piece..lucky I guess.

 

scott,then what did you do,did you replace the pump yourself,or drive it to the shop to be worked on,it's not that hard to do is it? and yes your lucky,I bet your stomach was in your lap the whole way........lol........it was for me

 

I made it 30 miles in an XKE V12 with the gauge pegged, and steam rollong out. Car was ok and I drove it another few years before selling it on.

 

The 1st time I lost the pump was about 10 miles from home. It squealed a bit then froze up which smoked the belt. So I started to limp home using the water temp gage as my guide. Let the car rest for 5-10 mins. then started and drove it until I reached 225-230* then shut it down and coasted as long as I could with motor off. Sat another 10 mins and so on and so on until I got home. After thinking about the symptoms I should have caught it sooner. It was weeping for a while which took out the bearing. Once the bearing starts to go you would get an intermittent belt squeal. Finaly the bearing freezes and burns up the belt. I don't think I have ever seen a bearing go without the seal leaking 1st. You should also be able to see the pulley tracking wrong when the bearing starts to go. Until the belt sized my water temp was running at 165* (1st Notch) .My experience.

 

when I had my 308 GTB for just some months, my waterpump failed around 80 mls. from home. But luckily it didn't seize, but leaked badly above 4000 rpm. I was driving at around 120 mls./hr on our german Autobahn, when suddenly big clouds of steam came out of the hood.
After I had stopped at the next safe parking - I saw, that the steam was white, so nothing severely - the whole engine compartment was wet, but the pump didn't leak. Weird, it only leaked when - like mentioned - above approx. 4000 1/min. So I could limp home without any further coolant loss.
After I had removed and dismantled the pump I saw, that the cage of the inner bearing had completely disintegrated. I only found some small fragments of it and a lot of a substance which was a mixture of coolant and brass chips.
I have never seen such a bad bearing before. Both inner and outer race and balls were rusty, but the pump still turned without resistance.
The bearing had so much play, that the impeller chafed the water pump housing.

Best Regards from Germany

Martin

 

I got a rebuild kit and and swaped it out myslef. The outside race of th inner bearing was frozen tot he housign, and I took it to a shop where they hit it with spot weld, which shrank it, and it came out.

If it were to happen agian, I'd probably swap mine for rebuilt one. There is a company.....flyingdutchman ? who does this for almost the same time & $ as you can DIY.

Hopefully someone here knows the name for sure.

 

will its not leaking and the temp is at 195f,but I'm not going to drive it till I replace the pump,it looks like the inner bearing is shot and thats where the churning,grinding and rattling is coming from I put a yardstick on the housing where the themastatt and water pump is and that noise is alful,I'm going with nick forza for the water pump,thanks for everyones input,if you have a story we would like to hear it................

 

Boy, tough one. Back when I was younger pumps didnt last very long. And you just dont know how they will fail. Some could last a thousand miles or more dripping out the weep hole, but some were more immediate. Some would make noise for a while before leaking, others would begin to leak but make no sound. Flip a coin.

To answer your question I would answer that it depends. On a POS rusty Plymouth I'd drive til it overheated. On a 308? I would be VERY careful. Overheating an engine you can buy all day at the junkyards for $100 is a lot different from one that could cost you over $10K to fix. Remember that the coolant sensor would still be in coolant after the heads went dry, and temps in the valve guides would become extremely hot before you might be able to shut it down. You may not get a fully accurate temp reading if level drops too far. And after you shut it down its going to get even hotter. Generally if you know its dying its best to just fix it now than fight with it later.


If I were simply trying to limp home I would strive to keep as low of rpms as possible, 2000 max and very light throttle even if you have to keep speeds down to 40 mph. That will keep waterpump speed slow which will help it last as long as possible. As long as temps are under 200 the coolant shouldnt boil and you could run with the coolant tank cap open one notch, this will releive pressure so the coolant wont be forced out past the pump seal as fast. You can also open the heaters up fully to get rid of as much heat as possible which will also help keep temps and pressures lower. You might sweat but its worth it to protect the engine. And if coolant level drops to where you lose heat from the heaters, it will be your major warning sign to stop the engine IMMEDIATELY (not at the next exit) and refill. Just be careful to never pour cold water into a hot engine.

 

In general, if I'm forced to drive on it...

Leaking doesn't bother me too much --- so long as I can keep the vital fluid level topped off.

Squealing, however, will cause me to shut any mechanism down as quickly as possible --- metal grinding on metal is never a good thing to push your luck with... "bad" can go to "worse" can go to "holy crap" in a hurry...

 

Mine failed without warning a little over a year ago. My wife and I were driving to the coast for a long weekend. Left my house at noon. Made it to Vacaville ( approx. 60 miles away )around 12:45 and hit stop and go traffic. I looked in the rear view mirror and noticed a small amount of steam/smoke coming from the passenger side engine bay. My temps were within normal ranges. I quickly pulled off and kept the engine running, popped the deck lid and saw coolant running our near the passenger rear wheel. Kiddie corner to the gas station was a Les Schwab tire store. I pulled in and asked if they could lift it so I could get a better look. As soon as it was up I noticed it was the water pump. I called Ben from Salerno Motorsports ( my indy mechanic) and asked him what I should do. He said have it towed back home. I "thought" I had the highest AAA coverage but found out that I did not. $400 later for the tow. $100 for the rental car plus a $150 non local drop off fee for leaving the rental in my city, $700 for the service to rebuild/install the water pump and a few other misc., plus the cost of the weekend getaway.

We had stop and go traffic for the return trip to Folsom. Arrived back at my house at 8pm after dropping off the rental. Pulled the 328 back in the garage, loaded up my wife's SUV with luggage and took off again. Arrived at our villa in Bodega Bay at 10:30, 10 and a half hours after we initially left.

Moral of the story NEVER BREAK DOWN WITH YOUR WIFE IN THE CAR WHEN GOING OUT OF TOWN FOR THE WEEKEND and check your AAA coverage.

 

I bought my first 328 in Atlanta July, 1997 and drove it home. About half way accross Kansas, I saw green fluid on the rear window. I stopped and called my mechanic in Denver about it. Since it was just leaking and not making noise he suggested putting a can of brake fluid in the water which would make seals expand. I did this, but leaks continued and I stopped about every 100 miles to top off. Made it home and then to the mechanic OK but a tense trip to be sure and it was hot day.

Dave

 

Very early in the driving season, maybe a month or 2 after I bought the car,my alt/wp belt melted to the WP & crank damper pulleys. At the time I had no idea just how expensive the 308 engines were, so wasn't too concerned.

IIRC, it happened this way:

My wife had somewhat forgiven me for buying the car & had relented enough so that she actually asked if we could take it to a family Mother's day get together at a very nice restaurant about 25 miles from home. All went well & after dinner we headed back home. About 2 miles or so from home the alternator light came on. I hadn't had the car long enough to realize that the alternator & WP shared a common belt. Figured the alternator belt had broken, or the alternator had died. I just blithly continued driving home. As I was pulling into the driveway, I saw the temp gauge was climbing pretty fast. Realized that I most have lost the WP also, shut the car down & coasted down the driveway to the house. Shortly after I shut the engine off, coolant & steam started blowing out the reservoir overflow tube. The temp gauge was just about maxed out.

After it cooled down I pulled the wheel well & found the belt melted all around the WP pulley. However, both the alternator & WP spun freely & had no unusual play. I was still very new to 308s, had only had the car for a month or so. I was completely baffeled. Posted it to the FerrariList (hadn't discovered fchat yet). Someone suggested that the WP belt was overtightened. So I replaced the belt, bought a spare & kept an eye on things.

I drove the car all summer without incident, maybe 2500 miles or so, altho it was in & out of the shop for in warranty fix of oil leaks in the cam belt area (another long story, I've mentioned it several times in the old fchat). The next spring I gave up on the shop doing the warranty work & did a major myself to deal with the oil leaks. The WP belt was still good, but there was a telltale brown trail coming down from the WP weep holes. By then I'd learned what that meant.

When I pulled the WP, the outer bearing felt fine, but the inner bearing was extremely rough, well on the way to disentigration! With the WP out, I could see where the impeller had been lightly rubbing the mating surface! Really just a thin brass colored smear on the Al surface. Apparently the bearing had siezed long enough to melt the belt, then released when things had cooled down.

What was really funny was that I didn't loose a noticable amount of coolant, nor was there undue noise during all this. There was only a slight brown stain coming out of the WP weep hole. All I can figure is that the coolant lubricated the impeller's contact with the pump body, then once it got moving, the impeller was generating enough water pressure to keep it centered on the WP body, kind of a liquid bearing effect.

Anyway, that's when I did my 1st 308 WP rebuild. Was amazed at how easy it was, probably took all of an hour.

IIRC, I posted the experience in the FerrariList, should still be in their archives. Some of it is mentioned in this old Fchat thread:

http://www.ferrarichat.com/discus/messages/256120/90465.html

 

Back in the old days I has a Plymouth Road Runner with a 383 in it. I was in Ft Meyers, Florida and needed to get to Key West before liberty expired Monday morning. I left Fort Meyers and about a half hour later my car started overheating and I stopped and checked it out. I had lost my water pump. I cranked it up to about 80 and the engine maintain the temp in the warm range but it didn't over heat, all the way across Alligator Alley and down past Miami. When I got to the highway that goes down to Key West, I had a hard time maintaining 80 and had to stop often put water in it. It was a long tough Sunday night trip to get back to the ship. The navy didn't understand car trouble. I made it back to the ship on time. The next day I walked to the parts shop, got a new water pump and had it repaired in about an hour and a half. I drove that old car for about a year and traded it in on a 912 Porsche. The Porsche lasted about 6 months and I rolled it.

Bob Wassam

 

Back in college, I had a fairly ratty 1972 Porsche 911 that I drove for 720 miles on a bad water pump.

 

until it got so bad i had to leave the pressure cap loose and fill the radiator up every other day....

 

.... about 75 yards !
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