Quote:
Originally Posted by Repete
Well I completed this job yesterday, with much thanks to Gregg's write up. So I'd like to add a few points from my experience for those taking this on. In addition to the valley pan (which was obviously the problem) and coolant pipe (URO) I also replaced the water pump/thermostat, both belts, various seals and the simple cabin air filters.
I deduced I had the valley pan leak as I found the coolant leaking down onto the bell housing and leaving traces of blue coolant down the sides. There was no coolant out of the front weep hole of the timing cover. Also when I removed the rubber 'drain plugs' on the bottom of the bell housing it was dry. If there had been signs of coolant coming out here, the problem would be the much more involved gasket inside the trans/engine connection.
While the write up was very helpful, an Ipad on the workbench was great. I found the water-pump and belts replacement much more difficult and time consuming than the simple instructions above might have suggested.
My first unexpected problem was the tensioner pulley for the accessory belt, very difficult to get to the upside-down torx bolt (T45 I believe). So I drove a mis-sized nut onto the treads on the tip of the bolt from the top that allowed me to simply loosen and tighten the bolt from the top side (righty-loosely, lefty-tighty). Needless to say I left this cross-threaded nut in place for any future jobs. I did still need to break it free initially using the torx head from with an upside-down ratchet from the topside......
Thanks gregg3gs for the DIY pics. Good luck!
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Ok hopefully someone will find this funny. The other night I replaced the A/C tensioner pulley because I thought it was the source of my squeaking problem (couldn't be the water pump because I replaced it last year). Completely forgetting what I had done and written about before, I struggled with the tensioner pulley bolt again - the worst part is that I spent a good 30 mins trying to tighten down the nut that would just not go back on. Yep... the mis-sized one I put on last time to save me time in the future. I guess it helps to reread your own posts every once in awhile. It also turns out that saving $30 on the water pump was a bad idea because the URO pump I installed last year has failed after 20,000km and now I have to replace it standing in a foot of snow.
Oh yeah another pitfall to be avoided... do not pull up gripping the top of the fan shroud, I pulled too hard on this and broke a piece of the fan blade. Of course you can't buy only the blade and the whole unit is around $500. So far I have glued it back into place but I don't think this is going to work unless I can balance the fan blade perfectly which will be tricky. Any tips?