Overheat and coolant leak on '95

Trying to track down a leak that's been found on friend's XJ after an overheat.

Water is running down the hose from the water pump, took off the hose and there was an accumulation of dirt & corrosion on the lip of the pump, thought maybe we got lucky and it was just the dirty mounting surface, but no luck - cleaned all areas and replaced and it still leaks.

Looks like its coming from above the hose but I can't see any obvious spots. Just grabbed the FSM and am about to go back to get real on it. If anyone has any bright suggestions please chime in. Right now I'm assuming water pump/gasket...

Thanks for the help, first time fooling with the XJ coolant system.


EDIT: sport 4.0 5-speed just to clarify

probably right

My 98 did the exact same thing. According to the guy who sold me the new water pump, its a failsafe. There is a smll hole in the base of the water pump that will begin to leak before the water pump completely seizes up. I am not sure how true that is, but I put the new water pump on and no more leaks.

gottwins? said:

My 98 did the exact same thing. According to the guy who sold me the new water pump, its a failsafe. There is a smll hole in the base of the water pump that will begin to leak before the water pump completely seizes up. I am not sure how true that is, but I put the new water pump on and no more leaks.

Click to expand...

Yep, that's true, or at least that's what I also heard and then experienced on a different vehicle. I found little puddles of coolant under the water pump on two trips, asked a friend and he said your water pump is about to fail, then the next time I drove it the pump failed.

yeh thats true, happened on mine and u had to replace the waterpump

Yeah, it was the water pump. Thanks for the replies guys.

This one was actually leaking around the shaft rather than out the weep hole, but it was pretty evident once we got it out.