my water pump is squeaking!

[amalventano@sc.rr.com (Allyn)]

are you running any coolant in there with your water? that seal relies on glycol
to lube it, as water isnt good enough.
Al

----- Original Message -----
From: "T. Reed" <treed2@u.washington.edu>
To: <scirocco-l@scirocco.org>
Sent: Monday, October 21, 2002 1:00 AM
Subject: my water pump is squeaking!


> Hey all,
>
> I've been having some annoying belt noise problems and I made some
> progress with them today by replacing the pulley bolts with ones of the
> correct length (so that they don't need washers) to center the
> pulley on the hub correctly. I also changed the shimming on my hacksaw
> non-a/c alternator bracket to better align the pulleys.
>
> However, when I had all the pulleys off I turned all the accessories by
> hand to make sure their bearings were good. Everything got a clean bill of
> health except for the water pump. I put in a new (used) water pump with
> the 2.0 about 1000 miles ago. It didn't make any noise out of the car
> before I put it in..
>
> Now, when I turn the hub on the water pump by hand it makes a squeaking
> noise (I assume from the seal).. turning it one direction (I believe
> it is the direction opposite to which the engine rotates) makes it much
> worse/louder than the other. It's not a continuous noise, however. In
> fact, when the engine is driving the pump by belt the noise manifests
> itself as a loud, high pitched "eeep!" type noise about 3 times a second.
> I can put my ear up to the muffler and still hear it over the exhaust.
>
> Needless to say, this is really annoying.
>
> The water pump pulley is the 2-part one with the (nylon?) bearing for the
> inner pulley. I spun the pulley off the car and the bearing seems to be
> fine except for a little bit of play side-to-side.
>
> I have no water leaks and no cooling problems (except maybe too much
> cooling - with this low temp thermo my car almost never hits the led)
>
> What could this be? A failing seal? A seal needing lubrication (can I
> squirt some silicone on it and quiet it down)? Normal? (although it's too
> damn annoying to be normal)
>
> When I first fired up the car after working on the belts the noise wasn't
> there.. but after a minute or so the chirping set in again. The engine
> sounded so healthy without the belt noise and the chirping.. but to my
> dismay it's not that way any more.
>
> Anybody have any ideas at all for what's going on here or how to fix it?
>
> Of course I'd love to avoid pulling the water pump and putting in a new
> one (again) but if this thing drives me nutty enough I might do just
> that..
>
> Thanks in advance for any ideas or suggestions..
>
> -Toby
>
>
> --
> '87 2.0l 16v
>
>
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