Hello everyone! I noticed yesterday that on my Volvo 740 there was a little coolant behind the water pump & timing belt cover & the block. There wasn't much but i did smell a little of it when i was driving the car. I went & bought a new timing belt & water pump for it but yesterday i cleaned off the coolant & drove the car a bunch today & when i checked there was no coolant leaking. Could the leak from the water pump be that slow? I hope it's not a cracked block or blown head gasket!! I checked the oil & there was no coolant in it. I checked the expansion tank & also no oil in it. There is also no smoke coming out of the tail pipe & the tail pipe is bone dry. Any ideas? Could the leak be that damn slow?

Thanks so much!!!
Scott

 

Anybody have any ideas?

 

very common leak, and it could be very small and last for a long time... when the engine runs the thing expands and seals itself-no leak. actually what's causing it is a the O ring on top of the pump that seals the pump to the head, a $.25 part. your pump is probably fine but you do have to take out the pump to change that ring. overall, no problem, don't sweat it... no need to look for bigger isssues...

 

lev, i already bought a water pump & a timing belt. I have no idea when the timing belt was changed. Do you think i should replace both anyways? And thank you for your reply!!

 

I remember hearing somewhere that the impeller bearing on the water pump will seep some coolant over time. Could that be it?

 

If you have the parts and want to do the job then do it. It's not that bad. How many miles do you have on the car? Also if you do the timing belt then make sure you change the tensioner bearing also. As to the pump if you want to check just take the fan/pulley off and place your finger under the neck of the WP. There is a bleed hole there and if the WP bearing is leaking you should have some antifreeze there. I've only changed my WP once on our 89 740 (310K miles) so they are pretty robust. I would also change the thermostat while you at it. Good luck.

 

as a "thrifty" volvo owner i never do things i don't have to do but if you have the pump already... i think there is a tendency to do too much to a car one loves and with the questionable quality of parts nowadays, replacement an oem part with something less is not a good idea just because it happened to be new... some of the entries here are a testament to that...