Well lets just say if was freaking HOT (99 degrees) and humid here in Nebraska today. Easily the hottest day since owning my 2003 Viper of 10 months. Well, after about a 30 minute city drive the water temp hit about 220ish...which itself is not bad...but the hottest I have seen. Well a "scratching" or "dry bearing" sound started coming from under the hood.
Started at about 3000 rpm and was coming specifically from the thermostat housing area. I used a long screw driver and put it up against the thermo housing and then put my ear to the handle. It was clearly from that area...not valve covers or anything else. Seemed to come right from the top of the housing. I assume it is really my water pump seeing higher temps than it ever has....and maybe the noise is a sign it is going out????? I am sure it is the original pump being 12 years old with 24K miles. The noise would go away as it got back to idle. But at times it was quite loud and I could hear it driving down the street!
With the engine cooled down, there was no noise. Only when really hot and above 3000 rpm...
My coolant bottle level was an inch too low....every since I bought it...so I topped it off. I would not think that had anything to do with it....but I could see plenty of coolant returning to the bottle as I revved the engine by hand and noticed the level was below the level mark.
Has Anyone else experienced this noise? Water pump going out? What do ya think?
Started at about 3000 rpm and was coming specifically from the thermostat housing area. I used a long screw driver and put it up against the thermo housing and then put my ear to the handle. It was clearly from that area...not valve covers or anything else. Seemed to come right from the top of the housing. I assume it is really my water pump seeing higher temps than it ever has....and maybe the noise is a sign it is going out????? I am sure it is the original pump being 12 years old with 24K miles. The noise would go away as it got back to idle. But at times it was quite loud and I could hear it driving down the street!
With the engine cooled down, there was no noise. Only when really hot and above 3000 rpm...
My coolant bottle level was an inch too low....every since I bought it...so I topped it off. I would not think that had anything to do with it....but I could see plenty of coolant returning to the bottle as I revved the engine by hand and noticed the level was below the level mark.
Has Anyone else experienced this noise? Water pump going out? What do ya think?
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