The past few weeks I have noticed my car starting to overheat. My fiance replaced the thermostat to see if that would fix the problem. Well it didn't. I'm still overheating. Now we have noticed there is coolant all over the passenger side of my engine bay. Could this be a possible water pump issue? We are in the process of moving and don't really have a lot of time or money to spare so any help asap would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance

 

Could be. Before assuming that's the problem, if you want to try safely isolating / locating the leak, go to an auto parts store and borrow their radiator pressure tester. The tester attaches in place of your radiator cap. You pump up the pressure to about 10 - 15 lbs or so and start looking for radiator fluid leaks. (Engine needs to be cool first of course.)

 

Another possibility is the freeze plug on that side of the engine could have rusted through and is causing a leak. The best advice is to follow Sparky-88's directions to locate the true source. No need to worry about a water pump until it has been confirmed as the source of the leak.

 

Alrighty we will take it to AutoZone later today and i will let you all know what is going on with it.

 

I'm with Sparky (my typical advice, get the pressure tester and see what that yields).

With the 3100/3400 engines I've dealt with, two items to look at:
1 - a wet mark (long line) on the hood insulation
2 - while the engine is running and th epump is seaping out a little coolant, you can see it flinging drops around (hence the wet insulation)

I believe the supercharged 3800 also has the plastic coolant elbows that go bad like the naturally aspirated 3800. The elbows are cheap and easy (at least on the NA 3800). But I am not famliar with the elbos making the entire passenger side of the engine compartment wet (it normally trickles down the side of the engine).

 

we have found out that it is leaking out of the inspection hole on the water pump. should i do a flush and flush out the dex-cool and put the green stuff in or leave the dex-cool in

 

Leave the dex-cool in, just make sure you flush it more often than the 5 years / 100,000 it says it can last. I do mine every other year.

Unless you get all the dex completely out, the risk of the green mixing and creating a nasty sludge is too high.

 

ok kewl thankz is the water pump easy to change on these cars my fiance is used to hondas

 

Just gotta drain the coolant, remove the belt and it's 4 bolts I believe.

Make sure the new gasket is seated correctly and reverse the install.

 

I think the water pump has about 7 or 8 bolts and if it's anything like an NA 3800, there's a bolt hiding behind the power steering pulley. Otherwise, it's a very easy part to replace.