Water Pump is leaking

ANSWER : Hello. You can just replace the water pump in this case. Although, the cost of just the timing belt is fairly negligible in comparison to the total labor of the job. My estimator says the water pump is a 6.5 hour job. Multiply that by whatever the shop rate is and you have the total labor without parts. You end up saving about $100 or less on parts if you only replace the pump.

The deciding factor will be the condition of the timing belt. If it has problems, you won’t be saving yourself any money by reusing it. In addition, there are seals and pulleys that may need to be replaced as well.

Assuming all the related parts were replaced the first time around, there isn’t a reason you can’t reuse them. I would say you should weigh the savings of reusing them against the actual condition of the parts. This is best determined after a complete disassembly. Keep in mind, time estimates will vary a bit depending on many factors. Either way, the labor is the largest cost.

If you would like to have the water pump replaced, a certified professional from YourMechanic can come to your car’s location to perform this service at your convenience.

ANSWER : Driving or running the engine without the water pump working to circulate the coolant through the motor will cause the motor to overheat and may damage the engine costing thousands of dollars versus using a tow truck to take the vehicle to the shop that will cost a lot less. I would not recommend running the engine more than a few minutes at a time or you will overheat it.

ANSWER : Based on your description, you may have a small leak somewhere in the connections to your radiator, water pump or to your engine. Often times water leaks start out small and develop over time increasing and decreasing depending on the temperature of the water. I would recommend having an expert from YourMechanic come to your home to diagnose and repair your cooling system.

ANSWER : Stop leak in the cooling system is likely to cause more problems than it will solve. Modern cooling systems are much more finely drawn and have far smaller passages than older cars, and stop leak will jam things up. I can’t think how it would make your car go into limp home mode however, unless it was a coolant level fault.Of course a code read is in order and that should tell the story. Meanwhile, it’s clear that you need to take care of that water pump problem It may appear to be fixed, but the leak will be back. If you want some help with this, you can Contact Your Mechanic. They can send a technician to your home or office who can read the codes on your Jaguar and tell you what this limp home thing is all about.

ANSWER : I never recommend using a "fix-in-a-can" or a "stop leak," as this can add sludge to your engine. You may just have a faulty gasket for the water pump or even a faulty water pump. In either scenario, the valve cover and timing covers have to be removed to determine the cause of the leak. It may be a simple gasket problem or an issue with installation. I would definitely not recommend using stop leak as it will sludge your engine.

I would recommend a pressure test and a visual inspection of the leak once the covers are removed.

ANSWER : It is quite likely that when the car was hit, the radiator may have been punctured which would have caused a lot of the coolant to leak out of the vehicle.

If the water pump failed or if it were low on coolant, there would have been overheating indications on in the dash, so you should have had some kind of warning either way that the coolant level was low.

If you’d like to get this fixed, consider YourMechanic, as one of our mobile technicians can come diagnose the leak firsthand and help address any other potential issues.

ANSWER : This suggests that your water pump may be leaking around the shaft where the pump bolts to the pulley. This is a common place for many water pumps to leak. There is a seal inside this shaft that will often times fail for various reasons. When this happens, this will cause the pump to leak causing the water to be burnt from the hot motor causing a steam or smoking effect as you describe. I would recommend having an expert from YourMechanic come to your location to replace your water pump.

ANSWER : First off, I would say it would be best to pressure test the cooling system to verify where the coolant is coming from. With the complexity of repairs to the cooling system on this vehicle, it may be worth the time spent to pressure test the system before tackling the replacement. Now then, as far as replacing the o-ring seal on the water pump inlet tube, it should really only require the removal of the bypass hose, lower radiator hose, and the two (or three, depending on manufacturing changes) mounting bolts that hold the inlet tube to the block. I personally would go ahead and replace the tube while I was there, instead of just the o-ring. Granted, this doesn’t mention what it will take to get down to the inlet pipe, but this is all it should take once you have access to it. If this is something that you feel you could use a hand with, consult with a certified mechanic, like those available at YourMechanic.com.