Engine

I recently decided to investigate a slight rumble noise from around the water pump and alternator. Off came the alternator and this was stripped and inspected. As I suspected, the bearings were a little rough so new ones were fitted along with a new brush box.

Next was the water pump. To my amazement the pully had so much play that I couldn't understand why there was no water leak from it.

I set about removing it and the first bolt came undone reasonably well but I was very cautious as it felt tight. As I tried the next three bolts, I knew that if I had given much more torque on the bolts, they would have snapped and that would have meant an engine out job to drill out snapped bolts. So there was no option but to strip off as much of the ancillary parts as possible so that I could get heat onto the pump and bolts. This also meant removing the cambelt and tensioner.

Of course all new parts were refitted including some new metal water pipes and a cambelt and tensioner bearing. An interesting point here. When I purchased the car, I fitted a new cambelt and tensioner but the tensioner having only covered about 12,000 miles, showed signs of wear and felt a little rough. So lessons learnt and the much more expensive SKF tensioner bearing was fitted. The job turned out to be a pain in the backside an took hours, this was not helped by the fact that my air conditioning compressor (all working) gets in the way of the alternator bottom bolt. So if your off on long journeys soon, check that pump as I sure wouldn't wanted to have carried out a pump replacement at the side of the road.