Water pump leaking?

My wife's freelander is loosing water very quickly. I think I have tracked the water to the back of the water pump. Everything is dry on the timing set, just wet on the back. Is this a common problem? I am having trouble gaining access to the bottom of the engine as there is some sort of a plastic air dam under the engine that seems to be plastic rivietted to the sub frame? Is there any way to get this off?


I am in Curacao so parts and mechanics are hard to find. Got a' do it myself.

Petrol or diesel? We need to know as he differences are huge...

Regarding the plastic panel, you don't touch the rivets - the whole frame unbolts with the plastic panel. Bolts are as follows:

One either side at the front.
Two either side on the front edge of the chassis crossmember (next to the suspension lower arms).
One either side onto the bottom of the chassis crossmember.

You'll also find there's a few screws (6, I think) on the front that also need removing.

Once that lot's out the panel simply drops away. Watch your head...

Gas 4cyl (thank goodness! That v6 looks tough)

Gen I
Year 2000

OK, well I'm a Td4 owner so don't know my way around a 1.8. Plenty of others here do though.

The under-engine panel is still the same.

i had this on my td4, tightened waterpump bolts a fraction and also radweld did the trick , that was 4 years ago
as yours is a petrol not sure if the radweld would be good for it , but i bet acess is not easy ,

don't put rad-weld in a k-series :mil8:


water pump is broken, order a new one. the under tray is held on by 8 bolts and drops down as a unit.

while you have the water pump off replace the timing belt,adjuster and ancillerie belts.

Tempting as radweld is, it seems it's K series suicide like Freelaner said . While you're at it, remove the 7 nuts from your intake manifold and check the rubber gasket - this often fail and cause leaks. Water loss from the K series is a total SOB. But you'll track it down .

Do you have the hayne's manual?

You buy a complete kit, cambelt pulleys and water pump. You can do mail order from here. Get the cam locking tool (eBay) not essential but makes it far easier. Use pink antifreeze, OAT stuff. Once the under tray is out of the way, the arch trim and the drivers front wheel you have loads of room.
Do not risk driving it with a leak.
Do not use sealants in it cos it's asking for trouble

Thanks for the info. I have no books or manuals. Everyting I have is in dutch and no good to me.

It is laid up till it is fixed. Does anyone have a good link to order the kits, tools manual or online manual?

Fed-ex takes 5 days here so I need to order this stuff today.

Diesel Do said:

You buy a complete kit, cambelt pulleys and water pump. You can do mail order from here. Get the cam locking tool (eBay) not essential but makes it far easier. Use pink antifreeze, OAT stuff. Once the under tray is out of the way, the arch trim and the drivers front wheel you have loads of room.
Do not risk driving it with a leak.
Do not use sealants in it cos it's asking for trouble

Click to expand...

It is Lhand drive so I may want to take the other wheel off

It is funny they moved the wheel over but didn't bother with the hood latch!

4flats said:

It is Lhand drive so I may want to take the other wheel off

It is funny they moved the wheel over but didn't bother with the hood latch!

Click to expand...

Good point right hand front wheel!

I have a shopping cart filled out with Famous Four, just waiting on confirm of shipping info. Is this the site sponsor? Nice if I can pay it back.

I tried to buy these parts out of Miami and wholey cow you would think I asked for parts for the Space Shuttle! 1.8L? What's that?

I just scoped the leak and it really looks like the leak is between the pump and what I believe is a T stat housing. How do I pull that chunk of plastic out of there safely? I only see one bolt.


Is there any chance that could be the leak? How do those two parts seeal?

Could somone confirm the T stat housing on this one is the PEM10025L

There is no dealer on the island so I have to guess my way through the part numbers

Ok I know this isn't the best read on the board but I am still working on a plan.

I am going to pull the T-stat housing out tonight. If I can repair or replace the O-ring I may be back in busness.

I found some instructions on burping the cooling system on another site. Does anyone else have good instructions? I have blow through the nippel on the intake, vent by the heater and vent by the distributor cap. Any other gotchas?

Ok, pulled the T stat out of the block. 3 Tough bolts to get out under the intake. If I had access to parts I would have pulled the intake to do this job.

Now I need to figure out how this O-ring sits on there. Any one have any ideas?

Mine dosen't look like this. There isn't a ridge for the O-ring to sit in? Is mine broken? or is this the wrong one?

This is the old one. I made this tool to pull the broken part out of the block. I got away without pulling the waterpump. Parts ordered.