Bad water pump?

ok heres the deal i started hearing a kind of grinding noise comming from under the hood. i finally poped the hood and took a good listen. it is definatly comming from the front of the engine by the belt. My old man said it was the water pump going bad. i have no real engine mods other than a cone air filter. the engine hasnt been running hot, no oil in coolant. nothing out of the ordinary. any suggustions?:idea:

probably water pump bearings

Check the idler pulley. Squirt some oil on the pulley bearing and see if the sound goes away. Happened to me.

ive heard of people finding wierd stuff in coolant, maybe something grinding in blades of water pump. maybe a take a look at that. just an out there suggestion

Just do the pump and replace the idlers and serpentine belt, it's coming on winter and you don't want to be doing it in sub zero weather and you KNOW it's going to fail at the worst possible time. Use a NEW water pump not a rebuilt..

Idler pully bearings should be Timken 203FF (or equivalent) - they take about five minutes to change with a vise.

A "grinding" up front is probably a bearing, but you've got several to choose from. There's the Aircon compressor, PS pump, water pump, two idler pullys, and two alternator bearings that can all present up front like that.

Generally, I'll just take the belt off and spin things by hand - you'll usually hear or feel which bearing has failed. Just replacing the idlers and water pump may not fix the issue, so spend a little more time troubleshooting... I'd sooner spend an hour troubleshooting than a half-hour repairing - just jumping into the repair may not solve the problem, and I hate doing a job twice!

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