Changed Water Pump and Engine Mount
 

I did some preventative maintenance today, replaced water pump and engine mount. My car is a 2000 'S' with 56k miles. Messy job at times draining the fluids. Here are my observations:

About 4+ gals of coolant came out, it was very clean and orange in color. I put back in exactly 4 gals so I'm guessing there was probably .5 gal still in the front of the car. Since the old stuff was clean I didn't tilt the car to try to drain from the front. I was concerned about the process to burp the car but I followed the steps in Bentley and it worked out well. I left the under panel off during the process to watch for leaks.

Removing the water pump was pretty easy. The 7 bolts were torqued very little and came right off. Be careful not to tighten them too much with the new pump, 7 ft-lb is not very much. The old pump was like new (see photo) below. The only difference was the bearings make a little noise in the old one. No play at all and fins are like new. Is the old pump something I could sell or just hang on to it?

I found the engine mount to be the hardest. I have to hand it to those that change it without doing the water pump at same time. Being able to move the radiator hoses out of the way really helps. Job would have been easier with a few more quality tools. Old engine mount was starting to crack on two sides so glade I replaced it. The torque amounts putting the mount back on seem like a lot but maybe because laying under a car doesn't give much leverage.

Next job this fall with be the big one, clutch, RMS, IMS.

Nice job. Thanks for posting. Probably should have changed mine out when I did my mount. I've got 84k on my '03.

You didn't mention
 

"burping" the system after installing the coolant. Failure to do so can be fatal to your engine.

Thanks. So when you did your mount was the car on lifts in your garage? That seems like job with a lot of cussing since access is limited because of radiator pipes. I only cussed once when the left radiator pipe wouldn't come off. It always seems like the parts of these jobs that 'should' go the fastest take the longest.

You must have drained the coolant using the drain plug? I just let the coolant drain from the hoses attached to the water pump and 2 gallons came out.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y37...r/P1010559.jpg

The motor mount is actually not bad alone. Lifting the engine is a must.

Yup I removed the big radiator hoses and the heater hoses. I started with the drain plug to get the initial few gallons out. Starting with the radiator hoses, for me at least, would have been a pain since they were not easily disconnected, coolant would have got all over my arms.

I found the access to the upper two bolts on the engine mount to be tricky to reach, having the right wrenches would help.

Mike - I removed air from the system using the process outlined in the Bentley service manual. It worked very well.

Yes, I was teaching my kids some choice new words while I was working on the motor mount. I had mine on cheapo jack stands so it wasn't very high off the ground. If I remember correctly, I popped the radiator hoses out of their clips and then just wrestled with them in order to get the old mount out and the new one back in. Not very much fun, even with the money I was saving by DIY.

Just changed the radiator out in my Honda. That wasn't fun at all and had even less clearances to work with.

Is it possible (I know it is.. but how hard is it?) to change water pump without taking out engine mount?

I changed my engine mount about 1 year ago.. I don't want to do it again:)

Thanks
Sasha

There are a couple of bolts that you have to find by feel. But it took me only a couple of hours with just the back tires on ramps. Not a bad job at all. Check out my picture in an earlier post in this thread. That is looking down from the bulkhead access panel. It's pretty open.

Yes this is the easiest. Engine mound generally is not in the way of the water pump removal. What I found was because I was doing the water pump it meant I would have hoses out of the way which would make the engine mount easier.

Do you need a slightly used water pump ;)