Water Pump on 440 1.8si (1995)

[jlgrosvenor]

Hi,

I have been experiencing a grinding noise for the past 5,000 miles coming from what I believe to be the auxiliary drive belt (crankshaft pulley, power steering pump, water pump, air con compressor and alternator). As the car is worth less than a curry and a pint, I have been reluctant to start stripping and replacing components without any clue of which item is the culprit. Luckily for me, I was driving home the other night, and the squealing/grinding noise started to get really really loud - to the extent that I was worried I may not make it home. Once (thankfully) back, I popped the bonnet with the engine running and the noise was that loud, I could easily identify where it was coming from. The pulley on the water pump was wobbling around, and once the engine was switched off, I could feel the pulley was loose.

I (also thankfully) have another vehicle I can use in the mean time. I have today jacked up the car, removed the wheel and arch/engine splash liner and removed the auxiliary drive belt. It looks really tight to remove the water pump, but I believe I have read elsewhere on this forum, that if I remove the alternator (10 mins?) it gives me much better access to the pump.

I have also noticed that when driving around in the winter, the engine temp never gets to where I believe it should be (needle in the middle of the gauge) and in summer sat in traffic, the engine temp soars to the point where I think it is safer to turn the heaters up to full to bring the temp down a bit. Could this be a symptom of the water pump being on it's way out, or could there be something wrong with the temp sensor (where is this on the 440)?

I would just like to point out that I paid for the beast to have a major service on 02-04-2005 and the water pump was apparently replaced (according to the invoice of £75.00 ha ha they must have seen me coming - I knew nothing about cars at the time but becoming much tighter has forced me out of this situation) at this time with 80,000 miles on the clock. I have since done an additional 26,000 miles, which seems very poor performance on the part of the water pump, seeing as the original one lasted over three times that mileage and five times the age.