Monday, December 12, 2011

How is the best way to change a water pump on a '98 caravan 3.3 liter engine?

the tensioner deal on the serpentine belt kind of makes me nervousHow is the best way to change a water pump on a '98 caravan 3.3 liter engine?
The serpentine belt tensioner is not hard to deal with. They make a tool that makes it easy to move it, to allow the belt to be taken off.





The water pump itself is located in the front of the engine, near the bottom. The best way to gain access to it is to remove the left front wheel, and the inner fender liner. Remove the pulley, and the pump itself is held in with bolts. These bolts are very thin, and if you are not careful you can break them off in the housing. That will require the bolts to be drilled out, so you want to avoid that if possible. There is limited room to get a drill in.



If you are not comfortable with the belt, you really may want to consider paying a shop to change the water pump. If they break a bolt or three, they have to do the drilling and tapping at no additional charge.



I work on my own cars. I pay to have the 3.3 water pump replaced, because over half of them have the bolts break.

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