20 mins into my 2 hour drive from PA to MD, actually going the speed limit, look at the gauge, a little hot, look back again 15 seconds later, a little hotter, look back 5 seconds later and I can actually watch the needle rising, I shut it off when it was a little over 100 and coasted to a stop...

I took a mental evaluation, well it cant be the belt because the alternator light didn't come on... please be a burst hose. Pop the hood and GAT DANG theres coolant absolutely pouring out the bottom weep hole on the water pump. The weep hole had been dry when I changed the coolant to MBZ last week and no coolant on the driveway ever.... the seal just completely failed.

While I'm waiting for the tow truck, I hit everything with penetrating oil, bust out the tools, loosen the belt, remove the fan, pulley and shroud, 30 mins later the tow truck arrives.

Get back to my folks house, pay the towtruck driver $65. Try to remove water pump... GAT DANG, the DSPO used SILICON on the WP. I couldnt bust it loose with a hammer and 2x4, so I finally drove a chisel between the water pump and water pump housing, and that finally broke it loose.

Take it to my parts guy, pay $94 for the new one including tax. OUCH!

Remove all traces of the dreaded silicon and polish the face of the water pump housing. Install WP and everything else, refill radiator, fire it up and start my 2 hour drive once again.

She runs a little cooler during the trip, pop the hood when I arrive and its dry as a bone under there.

Total cost- $159, 2 busted knuckles and 4.5 hrs of my life, a bargain actually to drive such a fine automobile.

Cheers,
Robert

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Cheers,
Robert

From the title of your post I thought you got it way worse...
Congrats! You caught that one in time...

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Think Alternative Energy!
300CD '80 (now gone but not forgotten...)

The water pump is one of those rare items that is cheaper at the dealer than anywhere else. I bought one recently. $35 with a $75 core charge. NAPA wanted $78, but did not have the pump. So I had no choice but to go to the dealer. When they quoted the price, I thought for sure that they had the price and core charge reversed. But such was not the case.

Byrnzoil,

Same thing happened to my '80 300SD on my way to MA from PA. I always carry extra coolant so I filled the radiator and left the pressure cap off and it made the trip home and didn't loose any more coolant.

Now I use Evans waterless coolant so there is never any pressure in the cooling system. Works for me.

P E H

thanks for the replies.

Yes, the failure of the pump seal was total and catastrophic, the results, fortunately were not.

Wow, 'the dealer is cheaper" thats the first time I've ever heard that, I prolly should be calling them on parts just for comparison.

I did dump in more coolant, and it just ran right out the weep hole, theres just no way I was driving out of there, with or without the radiator cap on.

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Cheers,
Robert

This will teach you. Almost everytime I change coolant either a hose calls it a day or something else does in a short period of time. First thought in my mind is there goes my fresh coolant followed by where is it coming from and then why me. But normally in my case if there are say three ten dollar hoses in the system and one that costs a hundred dollars and is not in stock locally you automatically know the hose that has failed. I try to check the hoses everytime that flush and refill is done. The on board computors must have a sensor that tells the cars cooling system to fail soon on the sucker after recognizing new anti freeze. Who knows?

Did you do a flush? Probably just dissolved all the crud that was keeping the coolant in the water pump!

That seal can fail pretty quickly -- probalby didn't get any pressure in it until you drove it on the highway, what with it being winter and all, so it's actually been bad for a while, but didn't leak enough to see until it got hot and high rpm with pressure behind the coolant.

Peter

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1972 220D ?? miles
1988 300E 200,012
1987 300D Turbo killed 9/25/07, 275,000 miles
1985 Volvo 740 GLE Turobodiesel 218,000
1972 280 SE 4.5 165, 000 - It runs!

I did change the coolant less than 2 weeks ago, I flushed with plain old water for a few days and changed it several times. I actually bought the flush product but did not use it, the radiator was perfectly clean and the old green coolant had little to no sediment in it.

Could have been a contributing factor...

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Cheers,
Robert

I've been nervous about this. Not a diesel, but my '97 F-150 now has 162K on it, and since I have started year 9 of ownership, I'm thinking I'm a year or more overdue for flushing the radiator. I've been hesitant due to the fact that I'm scared something will happen after I flush and refill. I know it is overdue, but so far all I have ever replaced is an alternator, and I don't want to start having problems. Especially since my freakin diesel backup car has issues.
Another buddy at work has a '98 or '99 F-150 with 211K. He is still on his original antifreeze too!

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Jimmy L.
'05 Acura TL 6MT
2001 ML430 My Spare

Gone:
'95 E300 188K "Batmobile" Texas Unfriendly Black
'85 300TD 235K "The Wagon" Texas Friendly White
'80 240D 154K "China" Scar engine installed
'81 300TD 240K "Smash"
'80 240D 230K "The Squash"
'81 240D 293K"Scar" Rear ended harder than Elton John

I am in the process of flushing and refilling the coolant in Dieter. The last of the three bolts which hold the thermostat housing together, sheared off this morning... Dieter is now parked until I can find a replacement thermostat housing...... Alas an excuse to start driving Rudolph...

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Over 21 years I owned several:
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