Possible Water Pump Failure?

10728 Views 4 Replies 4 Participants Last post by danielsledge850, 9 mo ago

dicholas_rage

Discussion Starter · Jan 3, 2018

I bought a 2011 1.4L Cruze a few months back with roughly 100k miles. A few days ago, I noticed that the heater was struggling to keep up, but I assumed that it was just the cold weather we'd been having.. About 10 degrees F or so. So yesterday and today the heater has not been working at all, but the engine temp was staying normal (one tick to the cold side of 50%). I checked the fluid resevoir and it was almost completely empty, so I filled it up with 50/50 DEX-COOL. Heater is working fine now, although it's a lot warmer outside, I'm sure it was because it was low on coolant.. So I had been driving about a month with little or no coolant, and to my surprise, the engine temp did not change, which in all the other cars I've driven it would have.. I am going to take it into the dealer this week to see what the issue is, and maybe they'll replace the water pump under the extended warranty.. Oh, and when I was driving to work today after letting my car warm up for about 10 minutes, and the heater blowing cold air, the engine temp "normal" I got to work and the check engine light came on(about 10 miles) and is staying on after adding more coolant and heater working, etc..

I guess I'm worried that I screwed my car up from driving it with low coolant, it really seems to me like the temp gauge is lying to me.. What do you guys think? According to the temp gauge it never got hot, and the heater has been blowing cold air for maybe a week or so when it's extremely cold, but I fixed that when I added coolant. Also, yesterday and today the radiator fan has been blowing super loud after my car warms up.

Sorry for the rant, I'm just kind of freaking out right now since this is my first "new-ish" car, that I only got a few months ago.. I'd hate to do serious damage to the engine in less than a year of having it.

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Robby

· #2 · Jan 3, 2018

The coolant tank is a surge tank.......since you indicate it had a bit of coolant remaining, the engine was never actually low.....just the tank.
Odds are nothing is harmed.......but keep checking it to see if the level stabilizes.....add as required.

I suspect, though, there is some air in the system......that would line up with poor heat and the fans going to high speed.

The service engine light may be related to the coolant temp sensor (for the fan control).

It seems the coolant temp gauge will only show hot when the engine is actually overheating.

Keep in touch,

Rob

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dicholas_rage

Discussion Starter · #3 · Jan 3, 2018 (Edited)

Thanks Rob.. I just wanted some assurance that I didn't just cause my car to hit the crapper... Will take it into the dealership this week hopefully, need my oil changed anyhow. There was only about a tablespoon of coolant in the tank, in the little dips below the lower hose that runs to the firewall, so even if it was out, I don't really see how it could get that bit of coolant out of the bottom of the tank, since the bigger hose at the bottom is above the small puddle of coolant that was still in it.

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ChevyGuy

· #4 · Jan 4, 2018

dicholas_rage said:
it really seems to me like the temp gauge is lying to me.

It kinda is. It's a computer readout - not a real gauge. As long as the computer considers the temperature "normal" it will park the needle one tick "cold" from the mid-point. This might be because the car's designed to have different operating temperatures depending one what's being asked of it - but GM didn't want a bunch of people upset that the operating temperature is managed instead of fixed.

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danielsledge850

· #5 · 9 mo ago (Edited)

Did you ever find out the problem with the temp gauge? My Cruze is having the same problem, sometimes when I crank it up cold start the fans stay on high and never cut off and other times it works fine, usually just have to turn the car off and back on again to get the high speed fan mode to stop. I've gone through two water pumps and feel as if the temp gauge is lying to me as well cause it's only ever gone to the hot side once it was actually overheating. Am going to replace the tensioner and another water pump and hopefully that fixes the problems with the water pump going out, thankfully got a brother that works at O'Reilly's and gets half off parts and convinced me on the lifetime warranty pump last second before buying it. Just tired of replacing and working on this **** car all the time as I use it to doordash full time. Worked great for a week straight after the new pump was put on and started chirping again tonight and I checked the pump and sure enough seen coolant seepage around the gasket and block and coolant resovoir was bubbling/boiling so I know air got in it again. SMH this cars going to get me evicted from my house if this doesn't solve the problem this time cause I can't. Afford to keep paying for parts and wasting precious dashing time working on it day after day. Seems everytime I can set aside some money to save for once the **** things gives me another problem. Swear I'll never purchase a brand new car again lol crappy plastic cars now days 😡😡😡😤😤😤

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