water pump leak, I'm assuming

Fellas:
Symptoms: Radiator is full, but overflow/coolant box is empty. The box was half-full a week ago, and I filled it to the 'F' line roughly one month ago. It's not going crazy with leaking, but I'm losing coolant.

Please see photo below and agree or disagree that I've got a water pump on its way out. Water pump was last replaced seven years/40K miles ago with Advance Auto Parts part.

Thanks.

 

You sure it’s not the radiator somewhere cracked and leaking under pressure? Mine cracked up top by the filler neck and when it started to leak the fan blew the coolant around a bit. I found mine with the engine cold when I was emptying my oil catch can. But now that I think of it, if I had popped the hood with the engine idling and up to temp the leak probably would have been extremely obvious in my case. Maybe do an inspection with the engine idling at normal temp.

 

What am I looking for in the picture?

 

The white spot atop the oil pan.

I'm becoming a bit surer now it's the water pump now--I've now got a puddle on the garage floor in about the right place, also. I'll pull the brush guard and inspect the lower hose.

The radiator is just three years old, replaced with OEM on 11/8/2018.

 

Coolant should be pink. That to me looks like a oil seepage.

 

My coolant is not pink. It's an STP product which is neither pink nor green, though it advertises that it could be mixed with either.

 

Here's looking up towards the leak source, the thermostat/water pump area.

 

Could possibly well be the pump but check the radiator really good for hairline cracks. Take the fan shroud out and take a good look. Also you may want to tighten the hose clamps or replace them if you have the oem ones still on. Good luck

 

Very possibly the water pump. They are not that hard to change out. The task is much easier if you remove the radiator creating more room. So my suggestion is to remove the fan, the fan guard, the radiator and then remove the water pump. Be mindful and do not strip the screws.

 

This is a V6. I was under the impression that timing belt removal (which I've done before--not fun) is required for the water pump replacement. Is this not the case?

 

That white residue looks like that stop-leak shit people dump in the cooling system when it leaks. It's pure snake oil. You need to pressure test your cooling system to verify where the leak is coming from, and if there is stop-leak in there, hope it didn't plug up your radiator.

 

Sir. I was mistaken and assumed it was a 2.7, my apology.

 

Yeah, I just looked at both the vehicle and the manual. Ordered the eBay timing belt/water pump kit with OEM parts. Yeehaw!

 

7 years is a good amount of time for an aftermarket water pump. I would suspect that is your issue. It's a great maintenance item to do on that motor. Be sure to meticulously clean everything before reassembly. Takes me about 8 hours to complete.

 

did you check to see if you have an engine oil cooler or not as they are different water pumps.

 

Job complete, with AirCabMan kit from eBay.

 

For future reference for anyone reading this.

Just read this, just doing my water pump and timing belt, it had the original untouched pump. There was no factory wp gasket, just a minor amount of what looks like RTV. The poor factory install was likely why my wp leaked, my wp looked fine but I am putting a new Aisin on it.

For sealing any gasket, I use Hylomar Ultrablue on both sides. It was developed for aerospace use by Rolls Royce, it never hardens so it won’t clog any passages/screens, and paper, rubber, or metal gaskets can usually be easily removed years later. The Permatex Blue is RTV.
https://hylomar.com/en/universal-blue/