I have also broken this part. Does anyone know a part number or of a part that I can substitute that will get the job done? Also, I cannot get the smaller belt back on. Is there a trick or am i not seeing a tensioner? Any help is greatly appreciated!

J.D.

 

Hey, new LR4 owner and new here after finding this thread. Found it very helpful, thanks. A few items to add that may help others that I didn't see in here yet (or I missed).

I was having a hard time getting the transmission cooler line coupling apart at the radiator even after pulling back the metal lock clip (I actually even took the clip off completely). I also wasn't too excited about the bath of coolant I was likely to take as I was not in a very good position to catch it.

So, I came up with another way to remove the coolant. I used my fluid vacuum (I have a Pela unit, looks same as mityvac fluid extractor). At the Y fitting right by the top of the expansion tank I was able to connect and was able to hold enough of a vacuum that I got a good amount out, about two liters. Then as I was working my way down with the hoses, I would just use the fluid vac pump to keep removing. Such as once I had top radiator hose off, I could snake it down into radiator. And then when I had thermostat housing off I could then go down in there. overall I pulled out about 3 liters with the pump and also used it to clean up the area behind the water pump where fluid collects.

Lastly, the fan clutch nut is left hand thread on my 2012 LR4. In some other threads I found on the 4.6 engine in earlier Discos it was right hand thread. I didn't find anything specific to thread orientation for the LR4. The 5.0 in mine was left hand thread. So from front of the car, the nut needs to go clockwise to loosen. A tap or two on a 36mm service wrench was all that was needed, no special tools.

Great forum!

 

To those who have done this work at home, how would you rate the inconvenience level?

I've got a quote of $950 from LR, and $750 from an indie shop... That's high enough to make me consider doing the work, but I have had issues in the past discovering after I start that there is a bolt I can't reach, or a wrench I can't fit, or something that screws up the whole deal.

Will I hate myself for attempting this with basic garage tools? Will this take more than an evening under the hood covered in coolant?

 

i already had all the typical mechanic Tools: Metric sockets, jack and stands, etc... the only special tool I needed was the 36mm fan wrench and clutch holder. I bought off Amazon with 1 day delivery. The job went like this:
1st evening after work I lifted the front, removed skid plates, drained coolant, removed fan shroud. Then I ordered the fan wrench when I realized nothing I had would fit.
2nd evening after work I removed the fan and idler. Then cursed and swore at the water pump for an hour while I tried to remove it! I finally got it out and quit for the night (with many beers).
3rd evening I installed the new pump (way easier than removing the old), re-installed everything, filled the coolant and went through the bleeding process.

I would call this medium difficulty, with brakes being easy, and timing chain being difficult.

 

Man, the internet is a beautiful place some days!

Thanks for an awesome response, this is exactly the sort of information I was hunting for.

 

I am doing this job right now. I didn't need to remove any hoses other than the top hose and disconnect the 2 hoses off the water pump.

I am really struggling getting the new pump into place and engaged onto the oil cooler tube without dropping the new gaskets. I've tried blobs of grease on the gaskets but every time I try to get the pump onto the oil cooler tube, I dislodge a gasket and can't get the bolts in. I have now put a bit of RTV sealant around the bolt holes on the gasket and bolted the gaskets in place and am waiting for that to set. However, I still am struggling to see the best way to engage the oil cooler tube into the hole on the back of the pump.

Any tips on this?

Is it better to put the oil cooler tube on the engine block or the pump first?

 

Maybe there are other ways, but I put the pipe on the engine first, so I had 3 'holes' to aim at. Also my gasket was metal and tight enough on the bolts that it stayed in place. My method was to keep all 4 bolts in the pump with a few threads engaged on the gaskets. This kept everything aligned. I also kept the check-valve unbolted and pushed over an inch or so to give me space (per the shop manual). Frankly, the pump basically fell in place!

 

OK, thanks for that. Got the water pump installed.
Having the next nightmare with the serpentine belt routing. I have the routing diagram and was attempting to replace it with a new one, but seems like I have to remove the viscous coupling and primary belt, but that has crazy tension and no apparent way to reduce the tension to pull the unit off.

Now I have the old serpentine belt routed correctly, but there is a load of slack in the belt and the tensioner is nowhere near putting tension into the belt. I have checked the routing 10 times and am unable to see any errors.

**update - somehow when routing the old belt back into place, it was passing under the viscous coupling pulley, not over it. All back together now, took about 6 hours all up. Would have been 3-4 if I hadn't tried to change the serpentine belt.

 

Yes the small belt is a stretch to fit and easiest to cut old one off and stretch new one on. nice work on the how to. I did my pump in the spring but drained coolant from the bottom. Did you just pull the top hose?

 

Yes, I just removed the top hose, I saw no need to drain all the coolant from below, as the car has been leaking coolant from the water pump down the engine block ever since I bought it in June. When I removed each hose I lost a quart or so each time, which I caught in a large tray under the engine. No need to get under the car at all (except when retrieving dropped tools). The coolant top up used about 1.1 gallons.

(I didn't even remove the fan as my fan wrench has not yet arrived from Amazon, but it would have been easier with the fan removed.)