Well, I was getting ready for a trip up in to the mountains for the weekend and did a quick check under the hood. Not so good. There's a pool of coolant on top of the water pump. I "think" it may be from the gasket just there but I'm not certain. Has anyone experienced a failure here before? No issues driving, either performance, temp, or CEL. Looks like I need to flush the system and replace that seal...
You either have a cracked by-pass pipe or more likely bad o-rings in there. There is one o-ring at the top of the pipe and two at the bottom of the pipe.
The problem is that at the bottom its actually a short nipple piece that extends down into the top of the pump. The downpipe fits over this nipple. You'll remove the bolts at the top and the top piece will pull off easily. The nipple is somewhat hard to remove. Removing it will depend on your wrench size and your arm flexing capability.
Three o-rings, some FIPG and its repaired. You will lose coolant during this process so you will need some for refill and don't forget to burp it.
You might also want to check to see if your radiator cap is functioning properly.
I have pictures of this repair process if you want.
thanks jeff. any pictures you have would be appreciated. more appreciated would be the OEM part numbers for those rings... I have a tube of toyota fipg somewhere in the garage. Hopefully I can get it fixed in time to make it out for half of the weekend...
thanks jeff. any pictures you have would be appreciated. more appreciated would be the OEM part numbers for those rings... I have a tube of toyota fipg somewhere in the garage. Hopefully I can get it fixed in time to make it out for half of the weekend...
I needed a smaller wrench to grab on to the nipple pipe. It does not want to come off very easily even with a damaged o-ring. It does go back on easier though.
If your wrench is too thick metal you'll end up marring the nipple where the o-ring goes as the jaw clamps will want to grab onto that section I ended up getting a 6" Irwin Vise Grip Groove lock plier. They were thinner than anything else I had.
The return pipe and nipple came out with little effort. I was able to grab the nipple with some needle nose vice grips and yank it out. No major damage.
I tried to located the o rings through my local dealer. they were not able to have them until sometime Tuesday. Tried to call CDan but missed him before Sunday. No dice at the local auto parts shops. Found "Omnipaking & Seal Co." and picked up what I needed. $.43 each. Got a set of spares to throw in the box. for reference the size is: H3.5x28.7 (whatever that means)
I found the exact same problem this morning, but baby duty and showing my CR-V to potential buyers prevented me from calling CDan in time; now I'm in a pinch.
Anyone in the Los Angeles area know where to find these o-rings in stock locally? My new (to me) 80 is now my DD, so I'm in a bit of a time crunch. Just like the OP, no luck finding replacements at the usual parts stores, and the local dealers appear to be closed tomorrow.
I know there's likely an obvious solution to finding these in town tomorrow, but I'm hitting a brain block.
Don't sweat it. It's just a leak. Stay on top of the level for the few days it will take to get the parts from Dan. Don't try getting aftermarket on these. You will understand how little the margin of error on the fit is when you are changing it and you'll think "Dang, good thing I didn't skimp on these things and that guy from Idaho mentioned it." Read up on how to separate the inner and outer pipes and I'm pretty sure there are actually 3 total seals here on the pipe thingy. Anyone?
Thanks for the advice Idaho Doug, I'll top it off and order the OEM parts. I had planned on flushing the system and doing the PHH and coolant hoses anyways, so I guess this will just light a bigger fire under me to get it done.
The upside I guess is that I found the source of that intermittent coolant leak finally, and actually located a transmission cooler hose leak that I'd misdiagnosed as a motor oil leak. Looks like I've got a / weekend coming up!
