I was about a mile from home last night in my '02 D2 and heard an unpleasant sound coming from the engine. It sounded bad, but not "It's about to die" bad. As I got closer to home, I thought I detected a bubbling sound -- I'd just checked the coolant level a few days prior and it looked good, and the temp gauge was right in the middle (I know that's completely unreliable).

I pulled into my parking spot and popped the hood. As soon as I got out, I could smell the burning coolant. I opened the hood, and it looked like the serpentine belt was shaking and the coolant resevoir looked nearly empty and was bubbling a lot. I checked underneath and it looked like the coolant was coming out of a faucet -- not just a leak.

I killed the engine, went inside, and had some whiskey...

I went out this morning to see if I could find any obvious leaks in hoses or cracks in the radiator (really hoping it's not the head gasket), but I'm not sure what I should be looking for. What I discovered was:

• There is still coolant
• I see leaks on the left, right, and underneath
• I can't see any obvious damage to hoses or the radiator
• It's now making an evil evil sound
• I didn't expect it to throw any codes, checked it w/ my nanocom and there wasn't anything

I'm assuming the advice is going to be: have it towed to a shop, but figured it'd be worth a shot to see if anyone has any ideas.

Attaching some images of the leaks I see, and a couple videos to show the leak and the new noise.



Today's coolant level

Left side leak

Right side leak

 

My guess is your water pump if you see your belt flapping and are leaking a lot of coolant from the front area. Check your fan blades and shroud for signs of contact which could be that sound you hear.

 

Pull the belt off and check all the pulleys. Either a water pump or an idler is failing/failed.

 

Thanks to both of you. The serpentine belt is starting to pop off, and it caused the fan to pitch forward -- I can't tell yet,but I'm hoping that didn't nick the radiator. I think that's a pretty good sign that it's the water pump. Is there a sure way to know that it's definitely necessary to replace the idlers/belt tensioners? I'd prefer to avoid spending the extra ~$150 for those, but if it's better to be safe, I will.

My minor question is: Do I need to wait for the 36mm fan wrench to be back in stock at AB or is there another option.

My big question is: How high is the probability that the mile between when I heard it and got home was enough to cause the engine to overheat to the point where I now have a parts car?

Thanks again

 

You can get the fan clutch wrench on Ebay or lots of other places. Regarding the overheat, it's unlikely you made a parts car but you may be looking at a headgasket if you're especially unlucky.

 

Thanks. Head gasket isn't ideal, but I guess better that than needing a new engine. Thanks again!

 

I got my fan tool from Amazon. All you need is that and a good size mallet to knock the fan loose. Sometimes it can be a bit tight but you can hit the nut with a punch/hammer to loosen it up. You can verify if you need any other pulleys once you have the belt off and spin them. If they smooth and have some resistance, they're okay. If they're crunchy or anything like that, you'll want to replace.

 

You can borrow a fan tool from advance, oreilly, or autozone. Besides the waterpump, you have the oem thermostat problem. Highly recommend you get some sort of inline if you want to avoid hg jobs. Doubt you blew the HG if the temp gauge never ventured out of the middle portion. Run the cap one full turn loose from full tight and the system will not build pressure, lowering the boiling point to 230 ish which is better for HG protection. Slip a hose over the overflow tube and route it up to the cowl area.

 

And this is you need to replace the water pump:

https://flowkoolerwaterpumps.com/en-...ery-water-pump