Clio 182 Cup dumped all coolant

[DanGPR]

Noticed my temperature gauge was reading maximum, stopped the car and all the fluid had been dropped out of the cooling system.

Massive amounts leaking from drivers side of car, from the area behind the wheel well. Below the alternator area. The car has air con so access is even more restricted but I assume this is where the water pump is? The previous owner had the cambelt changed about 1000 miles ago so I'm pretty pissed that they didn't do the pump at the same time! Anyone got a guide for replacing the water pump on it's own, or any suggestions of what else it could be in that area? It's literally dropping the entire contents of the cooling system in around 2 minutes, so it's a big b*****d leak!

 

[Fletcher]

I presume you have checked all the coolant hoses are in place, and not split?

 

[Jonz]

I haven't got a guide but I done this not so long ago so could describe it. Assuming you have no collant in the car:

1) remove bumper + slam panel
2) Jack up and remove wheel + undertray + arch liner + mud guard
3) Place jack with block of wood under engine and take up the weight, then remove the engine mount (and balancing weight + headlight will make it easier, access is so dire any extra space will help a lot)
4) 90mm+ clip around the aux belt tensioner and screw up to remove tension (I used a pry bar under the tensioner to help it screw up but be careful of the plastic tensioner pulley) Remove belt.
5) Remove waterpump pulley + aircon pulley
6) Remove the 8 or 9 bolts holding the waterpump in. They are those stupid e-torx things and will be next to impossible to remove if you round them, so take ur time, its very awkward and I ended up using all sorts of socket/wrench combinations.
7) Remove all old gasket material. Very important to get it all and make it as spotless as you can or it will just leak from the new one. I used a scraper with a blade and a good hour of scraping.
8) fit new gasket to the block using gasket sealant and carefully put the waterpump in so that the bolts line up while trying not to move the gasket.

Everything else is then the reverse of what was done. Getting the old water pump out and back in is an aweful task. It will help if you take note of how you managed to get the old one out. It's common to smack the panel with a hammer to bend it just a bit to give a bit more room.

 

[Amos91]

Then if you're aux belt kit has been changed recently (less than year ago) then you can just get a new aux belt. Don't reuse the old one.