Yeah, I dunno, man, it was weird. Like the bottom hose was cold and i.. Well, molested it for awhile (haha) and all the hot liquid started comin thru. (Giggity). Once it released all its juices, everything was alright. Giggity

 

HAHA thats hilarious man.

 

So i removed the thermostat and started her up, like i was expecting, coolant shot out, then i had someone give it gas and nothing! No coolant came shooting out like its suppose to. So right now what i know is that the wp is bad. I bought it already, just need to find someone to change it or maybe change it myself. And after thats been replaced, hopefully the car will be back to normal.

 

Yeah, that seemed like the last thing it could be. That sucks. What a PITA. Why couldn't they just put it on the front of the motor like an old Chevy?

 

Ok, just spitting out some thoughts for you here:

What bothers me about this, is that there was some coolant that shot out initially. I would have been much happier if the result were absolutely conclusive and no coolant shot out. Having never done a test like this on one of these cars, I can't be sure that, under open conditions such as this, a normal WP would not spit out coolant initially, then develop a giant air pocket around the impeller (essentially "un-priming" the pump), and then stop spitting out coolant, just as happened here.

I'm not saying that's what happened here, or that your WP is not the root cause of your problems, just that there is that nagging possibility that your test could yet be inconclusive (based merely on what you've said here). I only mention this because the WP replacement is not an insignificant job, and I'd hate to see you waste the effort and expense unnecessarily. In my previous post about your proposed troubleshooting method, I only spoke about the mess, but in the back of my mind, I also wondered about un-priming the pump; it just seemed somewhat convoluted at the time to even try and explain.

I would have been happier to see the test done with some "head" on the pump, meaning with the thermostat housing and even the upper hose installed. Heck, it could even have been hooked up all the way to the radiator and, with the radiator cap off, you should have been able to look down into the upper tank and see major coolant flow occurring on an ongoing basis . . . over some extended period of time. (there would also have been no mess ) As long as the coolant was still cooled, there's no reason you can't have the cap off to observe the flow. It's when the system is hot that it needs to be pressurized.

.02

 

Okay so i found a mechanic who's charging me no more than $200 for the wp change. But now he's telling me that i should change the timing chain and tensioner too? Should I? Is it necessary?

 

I really depends. What's the mileage on it? Lots of times it gets done NOT because it needs it right now, but because you're already "in there" so what the heck. I didn't bother to do mine when I had work done in there because it was only at 85K miles and I figured I could easily go another 75-100K before worrying about it. Hell, I may not even own the car by then.

 

It depends how he is going it. The WP that is.
My chain rattles and I kick my self in the *** for not tackling it during my rebuild.
Anyway the WP is possible to change through the little window on the timing cover.
If he is removing the front timing cover. Which is a pain with the engine mounted then he can defintely change the timing chains and tensioners and guides
Also 200bux is real cheap make sure this guy knows what he is doing the timing cover is easy to mess up when putting back together if there is no prep it will leak etc.. so easy to mess this whole up if you have no clue. I wouldn't touch your car for 200 dollars. Specially if you want timing chains guides and tensioners just my .02

 

I'm at 118k. Yeah i'm gonna do it. Getting the chain and tensioner, and also gonna get the water pump from the dealer. He recommended it and i thought to myself that it's better to have original parts then after market autozone lol.

 

If you are doing the timing on this car make sure you go with quality.
Do the guides too there is an updated design in the primary tensioner guide the others are not as crucial. As well as the primary tensioner Nissan has updated that as well.
Also the secondary tensioners the plastics wear With the chain and this will create slack on the secondary chains. (short ones) rattles at start up

 

Its not necessary, no, but man, since everything is already off and its sitting right in front of him and it would be super easy and preventative maintenance, it would be wise and cheap insurance. If you have problems with it 10k miles from now yer gonna be pissed that you didn't just pay a bit extra now.

 

Thats what happened to me

 

I have an 06 Coupe where the water pump went bad last year. Well, it still circulated, but the bearings were bad, so it sounded like a banshee. I replaced the primary timing chain, tensioner, new radiator, guides, idler pulley delete, and water pump. I'd be very leery of someone charging you only 200 (Nissan dealer wanted 1000 in labor alone) bucks to do all that work. Granted, I did it on my own (first time ever) doing something like this and it's pretty involved.

Get OEM parts for timing chain, water pump, tensioner, timing cover o-rings, wp o-rings, outer seal behind the crankshaft, and there is a half-moon gasket for the lower cover.

You also have to remove the lower oil pan, since there are two bolts in there that need to be removed.

I wrote up a DIY as I did it with part numbers and stuff like that if you search my name, just so you know what's involved.

 

Were you having timing chain issues also? Just curious on why you went over the top to change the water pump. There are 2 black access covers on the front of the case to change the water pump. Really that $200 in labor sounds about right.

You only need to remove the undercover, air duct, belts, radiator hoses, and fan shroud.

 

I think the OP was saying the mechanic he hired wants to change his timing chain, tensioners, and things like that in addition to the water pump. So, 200 bucks to do all that is a little off.

In my case when I was doing the water pump; I'm pretty sure the car skipped some teeth. While I was adjusting the crankshaft to give it some slack to remove the water pump it made a weird noise. Rather then be "unsure" about the current condition, I decided to remove the cover and set everything back. Since, I had it all open I decided to replace all the components underneath. Been about 20K miles since I did this and haven't had any issues occur.