Water pump replacement DIY. Learn how to replace a water pump at home using common hand tools. I was able to easily replace this water pump in under an hour and saved $783.
Replacing the water pump on many cars is not difficult and this is a perfect example of an easy to replace water pump. You could do this entire job without any special tools and I spent under $60 in parts which is unbelievable after getting the $843 quote from the Jaguar dealership. I will also do a video on a more difficult water pump so you can see what is involved in that as well.
Thanks PEAK for the coolant product placement in this video!
My first every water pump replacement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTl6UNMKjLc
How to Replace a Radiator: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeruAZebIeU
How to Flush Coolant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s--5ft5YiHg
Products:
Coolant: https://amzn.to/2YYwm14
Water Pump: https://amzn.to/2MBv8Y2
Spill Free Funnel: https://amzn.to/2JW8Kqe
Torque Wrench: https://amzn.to/2EQaP2R
Plastic Gasket Scraper: https://amzn.to/2WlimBC
Paint Marker: https://amzn.to/2WGcVwA
Waterpump RTV: https://amzn.to/2F29bLV
Scouring Pad: https://amzn.to/2EOWl3m
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Due to factors beyond the control of ChrisFix, I cannot guarantee against improper use or unauthorized modifications of this information. ChrisFix assumes no liability for property damage or injury incurred as a result of any of the information contained in this video. Use this information at your own risk. ChrisFix recommends safe practices when working on vehicles and or with tools seen or implied in this video. Due to factors beyond the control of ChrisFix, no information contained in this video shall create any expressed or implied warranty or guarantee of any particular result. Any injury, damage, or loss that may result from improper use of these tools, equipment, or from the information contained in this video is the sole responsibility of the user and not ChrisFix.

Hey guys chris fix here and today, i'm going to show you how to replace a water pump in a car. This is my dad's daily driver. He uses it to go back and forth to work and one day when he was pulling out of the driveway. I noticed coolant leaking out from underneath his car.

Luckily we caught this before he left, because, with his long commute, the coolant would probably run low and the car could have overheated. So we popped the hood and i knew the leak was coming from the driver's side area. So i took a look over here and you can actually see some of the coolant leaking out and pooling over there. And if we take a closer look right over at the water pump, you can see the water pump is soaked and coolant and it's leaking from the weep hole, which means the bearing seal is bad.

So that means that we need to replace the water pump. Now out of curiosity, i contacted the local jaguar dealership and asked them how much it would cost and take a guess. It was 843 to replace the water pump gasket and add some new coolant. So the whole point of this video is to show you guys that you could do this at home and save yourself a ton of money and we're not going to be doing anything crazy.

We don't have to jack the car up. This is a relatively simple job and we're using all common tools. Let me show you what we're using now. The first thing you want to do is always get those safety glasses on now for an 843 job, there's really not that many tools and products that you need.

In this case, we have a torque wrench, two sockets, a ratchet a wrench, some thread: locker a gasket scraper, a scouring pad and a flathead screwdriver or pry bar, and then we have our water pump. I got this water pump for 40 bucks. It's a decent quality. One, it came with the gasket it'll work, just fine, we do have a drain pan just in case.

We need to drain the coolant or catch the coolant. We have a no spill funnel and, of course, we have the proper coolant. Now it's very important that you use the correct coolant. Otherwise you could damage your engine and to check what coolant your car takes.

Just check the owner's manual and it'll tell you right in here. You could also check the bottle and the labels on the bottle. You could see right here. It says it's good for jaguars, 1997 and up we have a 2003.

So this is perfect, and that is all you need now we could go and get started now, anytime. You go work on a car, especially the cooling system. You want to make sure the car is cold. You don't want to work on a hot vehicle.

The cooling system is pressurized when the vehicle is hot. You don't want that scalding hot coolant, coming shooting at you when you're removing that water pump. So i let this car cool down, it is now ice cold, and now we could get started on removing that water pump, which is down there so in order to get more access over there. The first thing we need to do is to remove the battery.

So, let's remove the negative cable from the battery first good. Now we can remove the positive cable from the battery and finally, let's remove the battery and we can also remove the battery box as well. Now, look at all the space we have to work on our water pump. Next, we need to remove the belt because it wraps around the water pump.
It also wraps around this pulley right here, which we're gon na have to remove. So we can get to the water pump bolts, so grab a wrench and get it on the bolt of the tensioner pulley and pull downwards to relieve the tension of the belt. And now we can easily get the belt off the pulleys, so it's out of our way. Next, we need to remove this pulley, so we can get to the bolts behind the pulley which hold the water pump in there's three bolts here, holding the pulley in.

So, let's remove the bolts by breaking it free and then loosen it up by hand good and do the same for the other bolts, and these are small, eight millimeter bolts, so they're pretty easy to break free and remove just like that. Then we could remove the pulley completely so with everything out of the way we could get to all eight bolts holding our water pump in, but before we go and remove the water pump. The next thing most people are going to want to do is drain. Your entire cooling system so go to the radiator drain.

The radiator get all that old, dirty coolant out of here, because old dirty coolant with a new water pump is just going to ruin that new water pump. In this case, i drain the coolant and flushed the system not too long ago, so it'd be a waste for me to drain the entire system and have to refill it. So instead, what i'm going to do is i have some drain pans here. We're going to slide these underneath the car and that's going to catch any coolant that comes out when i remove the water pump, i'm not going to drain the entire system again, you only want to do this.

If your coolant is clean and new, i really don't think that much coolant is going to come out of here. This water pump is pretty high up on the engine and pretty high up on the radiator, so we might only lose a gallon, maybe even less that's gon na save us money and also that's gon na make it so we have less coolant to recycle. So now let's go remove that water pump. These bolts are all eight millimeters and they should come out pretty easily.

Just like that now water pump bolts could be different sizes. So what i like to do notice it's in this spot on the water pump right here as we remove each bolt i like to take each one one at a time and put it in the same exact spot on the new water pump. That way, we can't lose track of where the bolts go. This will make installing the new water pump a lot easier.

So now we can remove the rest of the bolts and it doesn't matter what order you remove them in just make sure you keep track of them and check out how long this bolt is, and now you can see why it's important to keep track of each Specific bolt, because sometimes they could be different sizes and go in specific holes. Another thing to pay attention to as you're removing bolts make sure you don't see any coolant coming out. If you see coolant coming out of the bolt holes mark those bolts because you're going to have to add some thread sealer on there, so that you don't get coolant leaks when you're installing it. In this case every single bolt came out dry.
So we know this. Isn't threaded into any coolant passages, but it's just something to keep in mind, so, let's unscrew this last bolt and remove it now, let's try to pop this water pump off beautiful and look at that. The coolant looks clean. Also, it doesn't look like we're getting a lot coming out, which is perfect so out with the old and in with the brand new.

Now, before we go and install the new water pump, we need to go back to where the water pump mounts and clean all the old gasket material off of this machine surface. Now, to do that, i do not recommend using a metal gasket scraper. If you grab an edge or something and gouge into that metal, it'll cause a leak instead use a plastic scraper, no matter how hard i try. Plastic isn't gon na cut into metal, so i don't have to worry about scratching or damaging that surface and then causing a leak so remove all of the gasket material from here.

So it's nice and smooth and this gasket is coming off really easily. But if you're having a hard time getting it off using a little bit of brake, cleaner, helps remove the gasket good. Once we remove all the gasket material off the machine's surface, then you want to grab a scouring pad and just do one final cleaning around the entire machine surface and make sure it's smooth and clean. So when we install the new water pump, we won't have any leaks.

The gasket will seat up against that nice and flat and then grab a towel and clean off that machine surface and clean inside the water pump. Just in case any gasket material fell in there. You wouldn't want that to circulate through the engine. Now we can install our brand new water pump and what i like to do is i like to grab the two long bolts since they're different get them in there.

But you want to grab any two bolts so that you could hold the gasket in place and also align this properly. So with those two bolts in now, we can get our gasket and slide our gasket in just like that. So everything's aligned and we're ready to install this now, if your water pump doesn't come with a gasket, you could use rtv gasket makers, so you're going to just spread the gasket material around and that would work as well. Don't use rtv.

If you already have a gasket, that's like putting two gaskets together, it's just a waste also, if you're going to be using rtv, make sure you're getting one, that's compatible with coolant. Otherwise the coolant will eat away at the rtv and then you'll get a leak. You can see this one's for water pump and thermostat housings, so it's compatible with coolant, but again ours came with a gasket, so we don't need to add any gasket maker. We can install this dry just like that.
So let's go get this installed now for all the water pump bolts, i'm gon na be using medium strength, thread locker that way, the bolts don't loosen up from all the vibrations of the engine and using the two bolt trick to align. This makes it really easy to get that water pump straight in now, just hand tighten both of these bolts all the way down and that'll hold the water pump and gasket in place. Just like that. Now we could go and hand, tighten the other six bolts, get them all in place which will set us up for torquing everything down all right, with all these bolts hand tightened now we're going to torque them down, and it's very important.

We torque them down in a crisscross pattern. So if we start right here we're going to move across to the other side and then from here we're gon na go to the other side and we're just gon na go across and then tighten it down like that. Tightening in a crisscross or star pattern will allow the water pump to cinch down on that gasket evenly and mount to the engine surface nice and straight so we don't have any leaks, so torque each bolt down to eight foot pounds which isn't a lot, but usually Water pump, bolts don't get tightened too much and every time i torque one down, i'm gon na mark it just so. I know it's torqued good.

Now our water pump is completely installed. It's that simple. Now, let's real quickly get that other pulley in place and then hand tighten the three bolts that hold that in and each of those bolts do have thread locker on them. These get torqued to eight foot-pounds as well good.

Next, we could add our belt and now's a good time to replace your belt. If your belt is old, this is actually pretty new. I replaced it last year and it's still in good shape, so i'm going to reuse it. So, let's just get this around two of the pulleys get a wrench on our tensioner, loosen the pressure on the tensioner and slide the belt over the pulley good, and you just want to make sure that the belt is centered on each pulley and not riding along The edge and that looks good on all three of those pulleys, so we are done over here now.

We need to go and install the battery, so let's get the tray in place and then the battery snaps in so it doesn't move next. We could connect both battery wires and tighten down the positive wire, so it's snug and doesn't budge and then tighten the negative wire. So it's tight good so with both cables connected and our battery secured. The last thing to do is to fill the engine up with coolant and we're gon na do that right over here at the reservoir, so remove the cap.

If you have a radiator cap, then you'd fill from the radiator. But in this case we don't so we fill from here. But you want to make sure before you start. The engine definitely add coolant, because if you don't you'll run the water pump dry and that could damage it.
So you just did all that work for nothing, so we're going to add our coolant and something that helps a lot when filling the cooling system is a spill proof funnel. This is going to help us make sure that we get all the air out of the system. It makes it really easy to bleed. It comes with all these adapters, so this one will work for the jag just put the adapter in and tighten it down, and then we can attach our funnel to that.

Now, before we go to start, the car make sure you get the correct antifreeze and fill the funnel up to about three quarters of the way and all those bubbles that you see bubbling out. Well, that's good! That's air escaping the cooling system and that's why i like these spill proof funnels so much. It makes it so easy for all the air to be removed because you could fill it up to here with coolant, and that is now the highest point in the cooling system. So any air that's trapped in here, that's getting pushed out is going to get pushed out up into the funnel and out into the air instead of getting recirculated back through the cooling system, the goal is to bleed the air out of the system to remove all The air we don't want any air in here that creates hot spots and that isn't good.

So that's why i like using these, and you can see that there's no more bubbles anymore. So now we're gon na go start the engine that water pump is gon na force, all the extra air that's in there out and it's gon na suck up any coolant that it needs. So we just need to pay attention over here and add more coolant if this goes down. So let's go start up the car and, with the engine running now we're just gon na, let all the air bleed out and as we wait for that, it's a good idea to check to make sure everything that you did is good.

Make sure there are no leaks over here. The belt is good, it's running fine. We could also go under the vehicle. You want to look for any drips down here, which means that there are leaks, and i don't see anything at all which is perfect.

So now all we have to do is let this do its thing. You want to get the car to operating temperature, so the thermostat opens. It's also a good idea go inside of the car and keep an eye on that temperature gauge. Sometimes what could happen is air gets trapped in the engine, and the engine will actually overheat.

So just check this every once in a while. Another thing that you could do is, after it runs for a few minutes, bring the revs up a little bit. Go up to 2000 rpm, get that water pump, spinning more and that's gon na force, the air out even more all right, 20 minutes later we're not getting any bubbles at all out of here. The engine is at operating temperature, so we could put our stopper in here push that down.
Then we could simply remove the funnel and there are no spills or leaks and remove the funnel adapter as well and finally tighten the cap and with that cap tightened all the way down we are done. That is how you replace an old leaky water pump with a nice new one. They wanted 843 to do this and we just did it for under 60 bucks. It's not only about saving money, but that feeling of accomplishment.

The feeling of getting your car back running. Doing it yourself and we did it in under an hour that is just such a good feeling. Now there's one more thing that we need to do and that is to recycle the old coolant. I use an empty coolant bottle and make sure you market waste coolant and just pour the old coolant into the bottle.

This can be brought to your local parts, store, recycle center or mechanic shop to be properly recycled for free and it's important to seal the old coolant and don't let your pets get near it because it's poisonous so make sure you don't leave it in an open Catch can now we can take this to be recycled and with that we are done. That is how you replace a water pump in your car, save yourself a ton of money. I hope the video was helpful if it was remember to give it a thumbs up. If you're, not a subscriber consider hitting that subscribe button for more how-to videos, just like this and as always all the tools and products are linked in the description, so you could easily find them.


12 thoughts on “How to replace a water pump and save $783”
  1. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Durbany says:

    tomorrow I'm buying a ford fiesta from a friend, she told me that it leaking coolant underneath on the driver side, I hope it is a water pump…

  2. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars A Robalino says:

    Most of the cars with a transverse engine have the water pump at the other side, looks like this engine has pulleys at both sides. Like my 1989 Dodge Caravan.

  3. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Chris L says:

    Would you be able to do a timing belt video? I’ve followed you for a while now and I’d have to compliment on your videos! You’ve saved me so much money and it’s rewarding fixing your own car. Thanks for everything!

  4. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars OnlyTheTruthSorry says:

    thank you for an amazing video!!! i pretty much suck at replacing anything but after watching your videos i feel like i wanna do all of that.

  5. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Paul George says:

    Just did the water pump on a vq35hr smh had to take the timing cover off while in there changed the oil gallery gaskets took a good 12hrs to do smh

  6. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Gerald says:

    I don't know if it's this easy in all cars but almost $1000 to fix this could be the make or break point in a hooptie for some people. To know you could do it for significantly less (I assume if you have a neighbor who knows cars also this would work) is wild. Been binging your videos. Thanks!

  7. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Wolf Duranti says:

    The worst water pump are in the Toyota camry, very hard to reach I wish I get hold of that Japanese engineering and chocke him to death 😂😂😂

  8. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Lawrence Hall says:

    Hello Chris. I adjusted the torque wrench and broke a bolt head in the block and was wondering if you had a technique to remove it please advise thank you?

  9. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars ‍1marcelfilms says:

    Simply don't replace the water pump hahaha. I don't do enough miles anyway so every other timing belt is more than enough for me

  10. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars alex hafko says:

    Just a note about threadlocker or any liquid on threads such as antiseize: unless the repair manual or spec specifically calls out for you to put that on the threads, the torque value listed will become wrong. Adding any liquids to threads not initially wet will decrease the needed torque to tighten, otherwise you can actually overtighten at the listed torque value. This is why I dont use threadlocker or antiseize on parts with sealing surfaces. If the torque gets messed up, it wont seal correctly! If you feel inclined to use antiseize or threadlocker anyway, you will have to recalculate the torque value using a wet torque chart. Even then that may not be correct, since different thread compounds (threadlocker vs antiseize) have different viscosities, which in turn affects thread friction and therefore torque. A wet torque value with antiseize will not be correct with threadlocker and vice versa. Since you can see the can of worms here…. thats why I stick to dry threads on stuff like that. Normal stuff like brackets, lug nuts, caliber brackets etc. I use antiseize on and dont care.

  11. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Pilot Chef says:

    hey, iam getting a clenching noise when i change gear from 2nd to 3rd, even after pressing the clutch full in, i was wondering if you can be of any help. its an Audi a4 b5 1.8 non turbo.
    if the transmission fluid is the problem, how do i top up? thanks

  12. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Mary Field says:

    I like how you showed the installation process too instead of just saying “installation is the reverse of removal” because there were differences and useful info in the installation!

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