Water Pump / Serpentine Belt Help

[Flanny_88]

Hello, I need some help cleaning up my mistakes after a water pump replacement. I have an '04 4.0L manual Jeep, noticed I was leaking coolant and decided to try and fix the problem myself. I followed the steps in the cooling system overhaul FAQ here: https://wranglertjforum.com/threads/jeep-wrangler-tj-cooling-system-overhaul-faq.3397/ I replaced the thermostat, water pump, and the upper and lower radiator hoses. Used a Mopar pump, Gates hoses, Stant Thermostat.

Everything seemed to go fine, and after finishing the job I took two short 20 minute drives around my neighborhood to test things, no issues on those short drives. Yesterday I drive to work (30 minutes highway), and when I get home at night I noticed some clanking and creaking noises. Uh oh. Check under the hood and the serpentine belt is shredding itself:

There's also some kind of leak on the passenger side of the Jeep, not sure what it is since it seems my coolant levels are unchanged.

Temperature never climbed above 210 on any trips and my coolant levels are holding steady, any guesses what I did wrong when I re-installed everything? I'd like to get this fixed myself but I'm also paranoid now that I'm going to do more harm than good here. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Tob]

Hello, I need some help cleaning up my mistakes after a water pump replacement. I have an '04 4.0L manual Jeep, noticed I was leaking coolant and decided to try and fix the problem myself. I followed the steps in the cooling system overhaul FAQ here: https://wranglertjforum.com/threads/jeep-wrangler-tj-cooling-system-overhaul-faq.3397/ I replaced the thermostat, water pump, and the upper and lower radiator hoses. Used a Mopar pump, Gates hoses, Stant Thermostat.

Everything seemed to go fine, and after finishing the job I took two short 20 minute drives around my neighborhood to test things, no issues on those short drives. Yesterday I drive to work (30 minutes highway), and when I get home at night I noticed some clanking and creaking noises. Uh oh. Check under the hood and the serpentine belt is shredding itself:

View attachment 612813

View attachment 612816

View attachment 612814

There's also some kind of leak on the passenger side of the Jeep, not sure what it is since it seems my coolant levels are unchanged.

Temperature never climbed above 210 on any trips and my coolant levels are holding steady, any guesses what I did wrong when I re-installed everything? I'd like to get this fixed myself but I'm also paranoid now that I'm going to do more harm than good here. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Are you sure the belt routing is correct? Did you also replace the belt during your cooling system overhaul? If so, are you sure it’s the correct belt for your year model, engine, and equipped accessories?

I can’t imagine what a passenger side leak would be other than engine oil or coolant. Check your heater core supply and return hoses.

P.S. welcome to the forum and kudos on tackling the cooling system overhaul yourself.

 

[Flanny_88]

Are you sure the belt routing is correct? Did you also replace the belt during your cooling system overhaul? If so, are you sure it’s the correct belt for your year model, engine, and equipped accessories?

I can’t imagine what a passenger side leak would be other than engine oil or coolant. Check your heater core supply and return hoses.

P.S. welcome to the forum and kudos on tackling the cooling system overhaul yourself.

I'm pretty sure that I routed the belt correctly, and I used the original belt so couldn't have been a fitment issue. Everything I've read says to get a gates or a Contintental now that I'll need a replacement. I guess it's possible I did it wrong, especially if that would cause it to shred like this.

One thing I was a little concerned about, when I took the water pump pulley off I dropped it and hit the asphalt under the Jeep, some minor scratches on it. Could that cause the belt to shred like this from those scratches hitting the belt over and over? They were really very small, but again I'm a novice so don't know what I don't know.

These forums have been a gold mine of information, glad to be a part of it!

 

[Flanny_88]

To follow up I did just go take a look and I did put the belt on correctly. Perhaps the grooves weren't seated all the way correctly? Could that cause something like this?

 

[Tob]

Seems like it could be a few different things. A seized pulley would burn up or tear your belt. Misaligned pulleys could tear it. If your belt tensioner is weak or stuck, it could allow the belt to flap around and get damaged. If one of your pulleys has a sharp or damaged groove, that could also hurt your belt.

 

[g.hayduke]

Probably installed the belt without being properly seated in the grooved pulleys. Get a new belt. Check installation carefully before starting it. You'll be fine. Should have replaced the belt anyway.

Shouldn't be difficult to identify the leaking liquid and trace it to the source. Could it be condensation from the hvac drain? Were you running A/C or defrost?

 

[Flanny_88]

Probably installed the belt without being properly seated in the grooved pulleys. Get a new belt. Check installation carefully before starting it. You'll be fine. Should have replaced the belt anyway.

Shouldn't be difficult to identify the leaking liquid and trace it to the source. Could it be condensation from the hvac drain? Were you running A/C or defrost?

I'll keep my fingers crossed I just didn't seat it properly when I try this again, I've got the old belt off and all the pulleys seem to be spinning correctly, mostly free but not perpetual spin.

I was running heat and A/C, one of the symptoms I noticed before I noticed the coolant leaking from the Weep Hole was inconsistent heat and A/C, so I ran both to check and seems like everything is working fine. Looks like it could be a minor oil leak which I assume probably isn't the end of the world. Need to change the oil here soon anyway.

Thanks hayduke!

 

[macleanflood]

I shredded a belt on the Rubicon Trail...I hadn't tightened my crank pulley all the way on.

It's entirely possible your crank pulley's rubber core has failed completely and it's walking.

-Mac

 

[g.hayduke]

I shredded a belt on the Rubicon Trail...I hadn't tightened my crank pulley all the way on.

It's entirely possible your crank pulley's rubber core has failed completely and it's walking.

-Mac

Oh yeah. Good thinking on that. Check the harmonic balancer to see if it looks like the rubber is deteriorated. And check the bolt to make sure it's not loose and allowing the balancer to move forward on the crank.

That said, if it wasn't shredding belts before you did the work, it's most likely something you did. So most likely nothing to do with your balancer but should still be checked.

Sounds like you checked the pulleys, alternator, water pump. They should turn freely and should have very little play, up/down/wobble.

 

[Flanny_88]

Oh yeah. Good thinking on that. Check the harmonic balancer to see if it looks like the rubber is deteriorated. And check the bolt to make sure it's not loose and allowing the balancer to move forward on the crank.

That said, if it wasn't shredding belts before you did the work, it's most likely something you did. So most likely nothing to do with your balancer but should still be checked.

Sounds like you checked the pulleys, alternator, water pump. They should turn freely and should have very little play, up/down/wobble.

This makes sense, I'll check the rubber part of the crankshaft pulley but hopefully I can rule that out since I didn't mess with that at all when I replaced the water pump. Got the new belt ordered, I'll be more careful seating it this time around and I'll check the pulleys while I'm at it.

Thank you all!

 

[KennethS]

It's possible that it was just an old belt that started coming apart. Last weekend I did a coolant drain and fill and noticed I had two serpentine belts - the belt had split with one piece that was about 2/3 the width and the other piece that was 1/3 the width. That was a new belt I installed along with a new water pump about 8 years ago. I have no idea what caused the belt to split like that.

 

[Flanny_88]

Just following up here, turns out the issue was that I didn't tighten the water pump pulley bolts back on enough, that's where the play in the whole system was. Was able to get them torqued down correctly and now we're back running smoothly! Thank you all for your help and advice!