What looks to be a coolant leak...'00 SSEi

[willwren]

Power steering pump. Two bolts hold it to the accessory bracket, on a horizontal line. Access them through the pulley holes. Piece of cake. (no pic necessary, so get back to work)

[Mechanical Mike]

It's not the power steering pulley if it's between the water pump & the front of the car.

[Mac077]

Its the pulley just to the right and slightly lower than the water pump pulley...I believe it is plastic idler pulley maybe??

[Mac077]

Ok, here is the scoop for other that maybe trying this right now. There is one bolt that is blocked by the idler pulley when you try and take it out so you have to remove the idler pulley in order to remove and replace your water pump. For me this was "extremely" tight and couldn't figure out if it was reverse thread or not. Well, it is not...lefty loosy on this torx bolt and if you just keep consistent pressure with an extension bar then it will eventually break loose. Now my biggest issue is cleaning the old gasket off the mating surface of the engine. Will continue tomorrow when I get a gasket scaper...more to come and I will be doing a complete step by step with a couple of example pics for anyone in the future. Thanks for all your help everyone!!

[2002BonnevilleSE]

I just looked at mine.
The idler pulley or the power steering pump isn't either.
Must vary from year to year or model to model?
I can reach every bolt with no problem.

[harofreak00]

[willwren]

I just looked at mine.
The idler pulley or the power steering pump isn't either.
Must vary from year to year or model to model?
I can reach every bolt with no problem.

You don't have dual belt paths for the supercharger. My goof earlier on the PS pump, btw.

So this is fixed? Sorry I missed you yesterday, I was out in the forest with the dogs.

[Mac077]

No problem Bill but yesterday was a day of frustration for sure!! Ok, today I am buttoning it up but I do have one last question...the torque for the large bolts is 15 and the small 11...this seems like they are not even getting tightened before my torque wrench skips...I don't hear the distinctive click but it gives...should I be hearing that click because I don't want to overtighten either (which I have a habit of doing)!! Hopefully someone will respond faily quickly so I can get everything put back together. Thanks!!

[harofreak00]

Are you using an inch pound or foot pound torque wrench?

Water pump long bolts 22 ft.lbs.
Water pump short bolts 11 ft.lbs.

It should still click even if the values are small.

[Mac077]

ft pounds...it should have a distinctive click right??

[wake]

should sound kinda like a ratchet just more of a deeper click yes

[Mac077]

Perfect, thanks...last thing i wanted to do is overtighten and break something!!

edit: Just doesn't seem very tight to me...granted 11 ft lbs isn't much but I am use to locking things down and don't feel very comfortable with lower torque settings!! Guess I will jst need to trust the experts...

[wake]

DONT do that.. it gets kinda expensive

[Mac077]

Ok, got it all buttoned up and took it out only to find it getting hotter than before I put the water pump on. Question...is it possible to put the thermostat in backwards? What else might I have done wrong? The temp is about 220 at idle and still over 200 when driving?? Any suggestions...doesn't appear to be leaking anywhere!

[myfirstbonnie]

Did you purge the air out?

Thermostat goes in with the spring down.

[Mac077]

Ok, purge the air out??? This is the first I have heard of this? So the answer is "no"! Have I hurt it by driving it??

[myfirstbonnie]

Nope.

On the top of the thermostat housing, there is a screw. Have the car idling and up to temp. Use a wrench to hold the nut and loosen the screw on top. Youmight get some air out of it, but you are looking for a good stream of coolant. Be careful, it will be HOT.

Did you drill a hole in the thermostat? If so, you should not get much air out of it.

[Mac077]

I do have a driled thermo but I am still getting mostly air from the bleeder. It spat out some coolant for a bit then when back to air. How long should it take to bleed the air out before I start getting coolant?? Also, when I went out to do the purge I noticed that the radiator hose was colapsed upon itself??

[myfirstbonnie]

You just want to make sure to get most of the air out however long it takes. Keep an eye on the temp and make sure it does not over heat. If you see the temp drop when the fans come on, you have got enough out.

We need to get your coolant up where it is contacting the thermostat to trigger it to open.

[willwren]

You introduced a bunch of air into the system when you did the work. You have air in there, and that's normal, and your temps will be higher until it's gone.

There are a couple related articles in Techinfo that will help you also. It might take a couple days for it to work itself out.