RADIATOR FLUID LEAK ..... coolant leak - repair shop claims $450, sounds FISHY! help?

Question

The car is a 1986 pontiac broham - only 60,000 miles.

We noticed that when the car was turned off green coolent would leak out. I drove behind the car to see if I could see any leaking on the road but I did not. The car does not over heat UNLESS its out of coolent or water in the raditor or reserve.

Now we took it to a shop, the guy had a younger man check the car... he came back and stated to the shop manager that he thought the connection was not tight and it needed to be tightened.

the manager than said he wanted to look for himself, he came back and stated that it needed a new water pump! .... i ask when it could be fixed, he claimed 1 1/2 weeks..... I ask for a quote... $450 plus tax!

Now, I ask when can It be done, he NOW says in 2 days! .... hmmm fishy fishy!

Now, Im asking you does it sound right that it needs a new water pump even though it seems to be working, Im under the impression that if it was a water pump that the car would over heat even if it had 800 gallons of coolent... what do you think?

Answer 1

As someone who sees failed water pumps on a daily basis I can tell you with absolute certainty that yes, your water pump could certainly be leaking.  All you have to do is look at it and watch for the telltale coolant trail out the bottom.  If you don't know where it is have the mechanic show you.  And yes a water pump can leak AND still pump coolant through your engine, in fact in most cases (except late model VW 2.0 liter 4-cylinders) that is the norm.

There is no voodoo or rocket science here and trust me, nobody WANTS to do a water pump on a 22 year old car.  Too many things can go wrong - so they are likely not trying to sell you something you don't need.  If you don't fix it though your chances of wrecking the motor are very high indeed.  

The timing issue could just be a matter of parts availability.  Parts for some of those older cars can be hard to find and are often out of production.  They may have found a supplier that could get them the part sooner than originally estimated.  No need to see anything sinister in it just because you want the repair to be cheaper than it really needs to be.  

Answer 2

I think it just overflow ,probably just put to much coolant in reservoir. dont't use pure water because it will just evaporate,if its overheating change thermostat

Answer 3

Read the other advice above, eliminate the problem after you discover what it is, and NEVER, EVER, EVER use the GREEN coolant again!!!! Flush out your system and use Mercedes coolant (which is yellow) or Asian coolant (which is usually red or blue). This will protect your entire cooling system, includint the water pump and seals, for about 100,000 miles.  Forget about Dex-Cool as well, because there is a mammoth lawsuit currently against GM for it's poor formulation and ability to internally rot away plastic components. NEVER BELIEVE THAT ALL COOLANTS ARE THE SAME, or that there is such a thing as a universal coolant, or that different coolants can be mixed. IT IS SIMPLY NOT TRUE!!!! Preventative maintenace is the key to longevity!

Answer 4

if you know what a water pump looks like its easy enough to see if its loosing water.most pumps have a little hole in the bottom of them and when the pump is bad it seeps out this hole.450 is kind of high for a car.if it was a van ide jump on it.there not really that hard to change if your macanicly inclined.if not i would shop around.see how much a pump costs.while your at it check your belts as you will have to loosin these anyways.maybe you could look around the nieghborhood and see if anybody knows how to do this that needs a little money.right now i would do it for 100 dollar bill you buy the parts

Answer 5

with it only leaking when the car is turned off, it does sound like the water pump. the shaft seal wares out and lets coolent leak when the water pump is not turning till it gets real bad thin it will allways leak, as for the price, i would call around to other shops and compare prices

Answer 6

Crawl up in there yourself and determine what is going on if you don't trust the guy. Or maybe take it to another shop or dealership?

Schedules change within service companies, and maybe someone canceled an appointment and he could get you in sooner.

But no matter what goes down you already doubt this guys honesty so you will never be pleased with what he does.

Do both of you a favor and go elsewhere.

Answer 7

on th pater pump it self  there are two different bushings that help to seal the water inside the cooling system. if one of the bushings goes bad then you get a leak. now just because you do not see water leaking when the car is running does not mean that the leak stops. as a matter of fact it probably gets worse given the pressure that the system builds up. i would bet that the car has more than the 60,000 miles on it. i would guess that your odometer is a 5 digit type. if this is true then you have 160,000 just given the fact that gm water pumps usually last about 100,000 miles from what i have seen.

a water pump can fail in a few different ways. those bushings can wear out allowing a leak to develop, the piece that sits inside of the housing can just disintegrate after sitting for so long. and the gaskets can just fail for what ever reason. in most situations aside from the piece just falling apart, none will cause the engine to overheat as long as there is coolant in the engine

Answer 8

new water pump at auto zone get a price is way high last pump i got was like 50 bucks and it take a few hours not days.. easy to check lay down and look under the front of car if its bad it will be leaking... best and smartest thing woul dbe leave that  place and go else where.. have someone else check it out... just say you car is over heating and nothing else looking for a leak is like easy to open hood and look for wet spots or lay down on ground and get head under car and look for wet spots is what they going to do at a real shop is look for a sign of a leak.. pump bad it will leak

Answer 9

water pump will sometimes leak about 10 minuets after you go in the House with the engine hot it will evaporate before it hits the ground it will only weep from the weep hole for so long then it will pour 450 is good for a shop they were probably tied up on a big job that cleared out a shade tree like me could do it in a few hours.  

Answer 10

i agree with Shanty J, i had one time replaced a thermostat but it was the cap

if you notice that the coolant is leaking directly where the pulley is, then it probably is a bad pump, as specified by nothingtodoandnolife

as for the cost of replacing the pump, depending if it is almost internal type vs the external pump, then it can be more costly

try and get the actual location of where the leak is coming from and let us or anyone else know more to help you out

Answer 11

A water pump impeller (fan inside the pump) always turns if the fan  belt is on the car. Water pumps fail because the sealed water pump impeller bearing leaks through a designed "weep hole" in front and underneath the snout of the water-pump pulley. Any independent mechanic could change a water pump. In your case the water-pump instillation is so easy why don't you do it your self. I just checked water pump prices and a re-manufactured cast iron pump costs less than $40.00. A sweet large bearing aluminum racing water pump goes for $125.00.

$800.00 to change a water pump on your car is far out of line. It's so far out no one can actually see it!!

Answer 12

Ummmm sounds like carp and tuna to me as well. Yes the car would over heat right away if the pump was bad. An 86 Broham with 60K shouldn't need a new water pump unless the car sat for a loooooong time with no one driving it. The corrosion can eat the cooling system up. The impellers on the pump can become so corroded that it will not pump efficiently.

When you park the car and see coolant on the ground then I suspect that the radiator cap is leaking. You'll just need to replace it. Thats a $10 dollar or less investment and YOU can do that. Take the old cap to the auto parts store and they will match it.

when you park and shut off an engine, it will heat soak. Thus causing the coolant in the engine to expand. The coolant will find the weak point in the cooling system and weep out.  

Answer 13

Water pumps can leak and still work. You need to have your cooling system pressure checked to see where the coolant is leaking from. And $450.00 does seem high for a water pump on a 86 Pontiac. Better find you a better shop to take it to to have it checked.

Answer 14

you have a leak . put a new cap on first. then have the system check by pressurizing the entire system take about ten min any good shop will do it for next to nothing.  ..