My car died last night while i was driving it and i have a couple questions about it. First of all it was overheating but it was due to my coolant reserve tank having a leak...i finally replaced it last night and was driving it around and all of the sudden it made this weird winding noise and died...when i pulled over and looked, my coolant was pouring out from under the car-where the water pump is-so i was like, okay i need a new water pump-seal probably broken-but then it wouldnt start. It cranks like it wants to start but wont turn over and when it cranks it makes this loud winding noise. Kinda like if you rigged up your stereo wrong and as you drive you can hear your car speeding up thru your stereo...lol. Anyway, my main quesion is...would a water pump that has gone bad cause the car not to start. I can understand it causing to overheat but not to start? I have never taken my car to a mechanic before cuz i usually do all the work myself so I am a little worried about putting my car in the hands of some psychotic crack-head fuck that wants to tell me my headlight fluid is low!!! Please help! THX-ANNA

It kinda sounds like your water pump itself went bad. As for it not starting ... I'm not sure. I know the water pump pulley is on the timing belt so it may be possible that it jumped a tooth when the pump went dead (maybe?). You may just check a few other things that maybe the cause of it not starting (getting spark?, getting fuel?).

You might have spun the timing belt off the water pump pulley. If the pump locked up, it could happen.

The whining could be from a dry water pump spinning, maybe?

Did the car overheat when the water pump went? Did you let it cool off before trying to start her? Any other weird thing happening?

*edit* Dino's scenario sounds nasty, hope that's not it.



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might be your timing belt. do u know how long ago it was change. sounds like your due for a new belt.

Well regardless of why it's not starting, if there is no water pump and most of the coolant is gone, starting it is not a great idea anyway. I would say fix what's wrong with it then worry about it starting. This could be as simple as you blowing the seal on the coolant hardlie that plugs into the water pump. That is prolly what happend anyway. If the coolant came out fast then that big black coolant line is prolly the source. If that's the case then your water pump is pumping in an unsealed enviroment which would cause some sounds.

I definitely would find the source of that coolant leak first, then check the timing belt.

Atleast you have a long holiday ahead of you to do so :P Good luck.

Could also be several other scary things. The whirring noise could be your starter not engaging the flexplate. COuld be a damaged flexplate, or it could be a very nasty hole in your block that knocked the starter partially off. Can you give us some more detail?

water pump siezed, timing belt is torn/shreaded, and you have prob bent some valves..I've seen it a few times too many... A quick look under the little timing belt inspection cover will verify it. Look at the belt and depress it. It should be nice and tight.

Yeap. Sounds that way.

>water pump siezed, timing belt is torn/shreaded, and you have
>prob bent some valves..I've seen it a few times too many... A
>quick look under the little timing belt inspection cover will
>verify it. Look at the belt and depress it. It should be nice
>and tight.

That's exactly what i thought. Right when we heard the squeeling from under the hood I told her to pull over. I popped the hood and see that it was coming from the water pump. Not even a minute after we had the hood poped the car died. She tried to start it several times (which was prob a bad idea being that it was turning the crank on a bad timming belt) but it wouldn't start. It was just pooring coolent out of the water pump. I figured the seel was gone so I went ahead and poored in more coolant to see if it would come right back out and sure enough it did. Took a look at the timing belt and sure enough it was loose. Hopefully the cranking engine didn't hurt it as bad as If she was driving down the road. Guess we'll see.

this is exaclty what happened to me last night. my car died right in the middle of a busy ass road. i had to try to start it again or i was going to get creamed by some dick head not paying attention. i started it and as soon as i started it i heard bad noises and killed it immediatly it probably ran for like 1 sec then i shut it down. as you guys were saying, coolant was totally gushing from my water pump. as soon as i got my car off the road, i checked the timing belt and sure enough it was looser than your mom (lol, j/k). so you said that maybe some bend valves are a possibility? what other damage might i expect? how much do water pumps run for?

ok well i'll just answer my own post... i just got a call back from my mechanic... $63.60 for a new water pump, $67.99 for a new timing belt AND (drum roll).............. $360.00 for fucking labor. wow i love being raped.

What about new valves? Valve job? They're not a possbility, they're a certainty. If the belt breaks or slips more than a few teeth, you WILL bend valves.

if your doing a timing belt might as well do the tensioner and idler pulley...

if u bent valves which is real easy to do valve job is gonna be atleast 250$ with new seals and guides and probably 250 to remove the head...

Bill