Just about the time you are feeling smug about the durability of the SR20 motor and the fact that you don’t have the extensive preventative maintenance related to timing belt replacement your water pump will die on you. If you are smart you’ll treat the water pump as an equivalent to timing belt kind of preventative maintenance. Around 100K miles the water pump is due to be replaced. Or, like me you’ll run until the pump gives up. In my case at 134K miles with my daughter driving the car the water pump seized. It would have been nice had she noticed tell tale noise prior to the failure. Instead she continued driving until the water pump / power steering belt overheated and broke. I’m glad to say between 5 – 10 miles of driving without a water pump did not damage the motor.
Here is how I replaced the water pump with a few tips that will make this challenging job easier – or convince you that $400 – 500 service charge is justified.
Tools you will need:
- Complete set of metric sockets, 3/8” drive and 1/2” drive. You’ll extensively use 10, 12, 14 and 17mm sizes.
- Open end wrenches (at least the frequently used sizes above)
- Ratcheting wrenches are not required, but invaluable for this job since they allow you to ratchet fasteners where there is not enough room for a ratcheting socket wrench. A set like the one
here or similar is worth the investment.
- It will be handy to have a hammer and long brass drift or other suitable rod.
- Flathead and Phillips head screwdrivers, a long pry bar is useful
- Pan to catch antifreeze you will drain
- Floor jack, jack stands
Parts you will need:
- New water pump. Don’t go cheap and save all of $10 on a remanufactured water pump. You don’t want to do this job more often then necessary.
- Permatex Ultra Gray RTV Sealant
- 1 gallon of antifreeze and 1 gallon of distilled water or 2 gallons of premixed
- New drive belts
- Optional: new radiator hoses, new thermostat
The challenge with this water pump is there is no room to work on the front of the engine because it is crammed into the right side of the engine compartment.
Overall tip for this repair: This job is more finesse then brute force. I’m not saying there will not be some tight bolts, but this job is more about finessing your way into tight spots to tighten and loosen bots by feel because you will not be able to actually see some of the fasteners.
How-to steps:
1. Loosen lug nuts on right front wheel. Jack up car. Remove the right front wheel and the plastic underbody covers under right front and behind the wheel well. You’ll use 10 mm socket and Phillips head screwdriver and will snap a few of the small bolts if they have never been removed.
2. Remove both drive belts. Tensioning adjustments are at the alternator and power steering pump. Follow the adjusting bolt on the bracket until you find the locking nut. Loosen the locking nut and then loosen the adjuster bolt. Loosening the bolt will loosen the belts. If your alternator or power steering pump is not moving then you will have to carefully convince it to move with some light hammering and a long brass drift or other steel rod.
Diagram: Power Steering Oil pump bracket
Diagram: Alternator bracket
If you cannot move the alternator or power steering pump with light hammering then you will have to loosen the lower pivot bolts. The power steering pump pivot bolt is near impossible to see.
Tip: Best access to pivot bolts is from under the car.
Tip: Power steering pump pivot bolt is 14 mm
Tip: Alternator pivot bolt is 17 mm
Picture of pivot bolt alternator
Picture of pivot bolt power steering
You need to loosen the pivot bolt from behind the bracket (not from front - this is a weldnut and will not move)
3. Position a floor jack under the oil pan. This jack is necessary to support the engine when you remove the front engine mount and key to move the engine up and down to get better access to fasteners.
Tip: Use a piece of wood to distribute the pressure of the jack. Position the jack on the right (front of engine) edge of the oil pan.
Picture of jack position
4. Remove the front engine mount. There are three 14 mm bolts accessible from top. Then remove the through bolt with 2 14 mm sockets / wrenches.
Front mount diagram
Front mount photo
5. Remove the front engine mount bracket. This is a T shaped bracket held to the engine by three bolts and a nut. The nut is the lower pivot of the alternator. There is a bolt hidden under the alternator end of the bracket.
Tip: Use your jack to lift the front of the engine to access the two bolts at the top ends of the T.
Tip: Use your jack to drop the engine enough to access and remove the bolt and nut at the bottom of the T. The lower bolt and nut is access from under the car.
6. Drain the radiator. Either remove the bottom hose or if you still have the OEM radiator there is a removable drain plug at the right corner (near alternator). Use a phillips head screwdriver to unscrew the drain plug.
7. Remove the water pump pulley. This was easy for me because my water pump had seized so the pulley wasn’t about to move while I loosened the 4 10 mm bolts holding the pulley to the water pump shaft. I might have tried to grab the edge of the pulley with a long nose vice grip or maybe a strap wrench. Tape the edges of the vice grip and try not to damage the pulley.
7. Repair manual suggests draining the engine block. But, block plugs are notorious for being rusty and hard to access. I skipped this step and was ready for about 2 cups of antifreeze to drain messily when I removed the water pump.
8. Two of the bolts holding the water pump are also through the power steering pump bracket. Keep these 2 bolts separate – they are longer then the other water pump bolts.
Tip: One bolt is completely hidden below the water pump shaft.
Tip: A long pry bar behind the water pump shaft and a little hammer persuasion will pop the water pump free – if all the mounting bolts are removed.
Water pump bolt diagram
Photo of water pump
Photo of water pump removed
9. Get a razor blade / scraper to clean the engine block of any gasket residue. Apply a thin layer of ultra gray Permatex RTV sealant on your new water pump housing. Carefully install the shiny new water pump.
Reverse the directions and fill the radiator last to give the RTV sealant time to cure (cure time is temperature dependent, but at least a couple of hours). Keep the front end of the car on jack stands while you fill the radiator. Run the engine until both radiator hoses are hot. Let the engine cool. Open the radiator and add more 50 / 50 antifreeze and distilled water.
