E30 Zone

gonna be a fun afternoon, found a new pump for 30 sheets so just after anyones quick words of wisdom to save me getting all het up and busted knuckles lol
not done a water pump before but i believe its behind the fan so just gonna take off the grill and undo bolts till i find it

rad out, viscous off, dizzy cap off, front metal cooling pipe off, all aux belts off, timing case and timing belt off is the way i did it.. took the rad out for better access.

make sure you clean up the immediate area with fine emery cloth otherwise it may leak.

Makes a fair bit of difference as to what engine you have!

m20b20, standard 2 litre 6 pot

eltel wrote:rad out, viscous off, dizzy cap off, front metal cooling pipe off, all aux belts off, timing case and timing belt off is the way i did it.. took the rad out for better access.

make sure you clean up the immediate area with fine emery cloth otherwise it may leak.

Can be done without taking the timing belt off (Especially if you're not confident about putting it back on and bending a valve! )

But yes, Rad out, fan off (Requires a specialist spanner,£15 from halfords) The front cross pipe off for the cooling that goes into the bottom of the thermostat housing (do check you can open the bleed screw, this will help for bleeding it later!) Both Auxilery belts off, remove the pulley from the front of the pump and the timing covers.

You should be able to access the pump be it a bit fiddly to get at all the bolds (6 if i remember).

Word of advice when reassemby, do put a smear of blue hyloma (Silicon) on the gasket as they don't tend to seal first time, i found out the first time i did one with water peeing out of the front of my engine Cue having to redo it ALL again

Remember, the fan undoes clockwise (reverse thread). The water pump pliers in the bootlid toolkit can be quite helpful with that.

The timing belt is initially tensioned by a spring and pin which locate against the water pump. Once the timing belt is tensioned this spring and pin do nothing, so can be safely left out when fitting the pump.
It is extremely difficult to line the pump up with its fixing holes, keep the gasket in place, fight the spring and get the bolts in. The usual result is that the gasket gets displaced or damaged.
No sealants should be needed, but if you do use any, especially the silicon rubber type, use it exceedingly sparingly. Little balls of the stuff squeeze out on the inside and break off, travelling around the cooling system, looking for small passageways to block.

ok all is going ok ish, damned dizzy screw has decided its gonna round itself off though, so currently trying to find a way around that, but i think its time for the drill! grrrr. hahaha, and also realised i left my gasket set 20 miles away! doh! fortunately halfords is right across the road lol!

bleed screw is proper welded solid too, sigh, remind me again why we love these vehicles soooo much???

can anyone tell me the size of the spanner i need to get the viscous fan off with? waitin on that so i can go buy one . . .

mucho's thanks by the way to all!

32mm. Needs to be thin.

snorted! 12.99 bargain, thanks guys, old pump off, just cleaning up now and then on with the new before it gets dark i hope!!!! laters tyre shredders!

all done and leak seems to be cured, thanks for the help guys!