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2011 WK2: water pump and radiator (a precautionary tale....)

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2011 wk2
20K views 29 replies 7 participants last post by  Robey5 
#1 · (Edited)
Earlier in November, my 2011 started to squeal a bit. I knew that it was a symptom of a tired water pump. I deferred this job for as long as I could, and earlier last week, I bought (...had to order) the water pump and T-stat.

I took to the interweb to see how bad this job was, and much to my suprise, I could not find a how-to video on you-tube or, any write up on how-to. Perhaps my google-fu is not that great; or ... perhaps this truck is just a hair too new for people to have been tipping their toe into DIY water pump replacement.

I was able to get access to "all-data" that has a haynes-manual like how-to on this job, but I wanted to see someone else that did this job to understand what I was in for.

The closest I could find was a RAM of a similar year, and I watched that for reference. On Thursday (this week), I had the pump, T-stat and other jazz in hand, and I planned to do the job "some time over the weekend". That changed to "...first thing saturday morning," when I pulled into the drive way and put it in park just in time to hear the pump blow it's load, and oooze Dex-cool on my driveway.
 
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#2 · (Edited)
I did as much research as I could on Friday evening, and I determined that I would be able to knock this job out in a few hours on Saturday.

The following is for the next soul who would like to know what they're getting into when replaceing a water pump in a Hemi-WK2.
 

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#3 ·
Friday evening may have been an evening where I lost track of the number of craft-beers consumed while working on the trim in our house, because I woke up a little late on saturday. Enough about that, I had my wrench in hand, and was ready to get this truck back on the road (...for the record, this pump was original on the truck, and I just crossed 133k, original owner).

Here we go:

First, you will need to pull the engine cover off. The one that says HEMI on it.

Next, pull the "resinator" (the bulbous thing that connects the air filter box to the intake).

Next, pull the belt. The tensioner is most easily able to be moved with a 3/8 socket driver, and a breaker bar on it.
 

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#4 · (Edited)
Pull the upper radiator hose......

And put a drop bucket below the belly pan (I purchased one of those little tubs from a home-DIY center that is commonly used for mixing a small batch of mortar or cement)

And then comes the tricky part. This was above all the toughest part of the job: the engine cooling fan assy.

My truck is equipped with a BROSE BL-EC system, and I am sure that it is really expensive to replace, so due-care should be used when handling it, but it was VERY tough to get out. The trick was: pull the top little deflector. Pull the A/C to core support bracket, and pull the little x-mass tree zip-ties that hold the A/C lines in place. Then (finally), release the clips on the dr/ps side of the radiator, and pull UP.
 

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#5 ·
Next I drained the radiator. There is a little screw-type drain plug.


Next, I pulled the lower radiator hose, but the thing SPLIT on me, rendering it's needing to be replaced (...then I found out that it is a dealer item!). So there was a break in the action for a bit while I ran down to a dealership and paid the $25(ish) to acquire a new lower hose.



Then, I did a little inspection on the radiator. As you will see in the picture: it was time to replace this dood.

But: I figured that because it wasn't leaking when I started the job: it should not have been leaking after, and I would defer that project to a day down the road. (Litttle did I know at the time, I would be tackling it the next day....)
 

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#6 ·
Now to the good stuff.

11 bolts hold the water pump to the engine block. You're going to need to pull the idler pulley and the tensioner pulley as well.

I took one off at a time, and put them in their "rightful" hole on the new water pump as I was working along; because they are different lengths and different threads: most are removed with a 15mm socket.

When the old pump was out, I transferred the bolts on to the old, and installed the pump in the truck.
 

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#7 ·
I don't have any pictures of me flushing the system with my hose, but that's what I did next.

I also hit the gasket surface on the block with a green scuff pad to clean it up a bit.

Next came re-assy.....

For those who care, torque the bolts on the water pump is 18ft-lb (according to All-data).
 

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#8 ·
Next, I filled the system with the coolant/water mix. For those who are the EPA police, don't worry: my bucket of spent coolant was disposed of properly....

But: as I was filling, I noticed a leak, one which warranted replacement of the radiator. BOOOOOOOOO! I must have interrupted something that was there for 133k miles, and now: it was time to replace it.

SO - a call to the FLAPS, and an order was placed for the radiator. Which would be available for me to pick up at 10:30.
 
#9 · (Edited)
Sunday morning: I had a full agenda that now included replacement of a radiator on the WK2.

I finished the trim-work that I needed to, and put another hit of stain on some molding that needed to be installed later once it was dry.

I figured that the replacement of the radiator is billed at 2.2 hours, so: I would be able to knock it out (along with some of the "while I am in there tasks of cleaning and such...") in about 4 hours. By the way: I would like to meet the guy who can accomplish this replacement in 2.2 hours. I don't think it's possible.

Pull the facia/ bumper cover and grille and such (there are many you-tube videos on this...)


Then pull the stuff that connects to the upper radiator/core support.
Then pull the little shrouds that are on the left and right of the condenser.
Then pull the little nut that holds the A/C lines to the condenser.

I am going to stop here for a second, because I was following All-data's directions and I really did not want to drain the A/C ... because I do not mess with A/C, because I do not have the equipment to properly diagnose or install the gas.... But I did (unfortunately) have to drain it to pull the condenser out of the way. I am not posative that you HAVE to, but I chose not to pull the A/T trans lines from the top/right of the condenser, because I did not have the special quick-connect tool to remove those lines. THUS: tomorrow, I will be taking it to a local repair shop and having a re-charge done, with the green dye.

At any rate, the power steering cooling unit also moves a bit so you can get to the radiator.
 

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#10 · (Edited)
Now, to get the radiator OUT you will need to remove the top-core support. That means that you will have to pull the latch mech as well. (Carefully, and use a scribe to make sure that the position is preserved so that you can ensure your hood will open).

By now it was about 1:30, and a second call was placed to FLAPS to see if my radiator had made it to their stock pile. FLAPS employee, "I am sorry that you were misinformed...on Sundays we do not get our hub delivery until 1:30-2:30, and ... it looks like your radiator is indeed on that delivery run."
 

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#11 ·
It is a little tough to see, but you're going to want to install the radiator and cooling fan as a package;

DO NOT

Let the new radiator hit, knick, touch or otherwise be mis handled on it's way back into the car.
 

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#12 ·
Now, button it back up and fill the system with coolant, and test drive!

I hope I was able to help someone out there...
 

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#13 ·
All in: with all the additional cleaning and such that was done - I put about 8 hours into replacing the radiator (which included a 1.5 hour trip to FLAPS). I would say that the worst part of the whole job is removing the bumper/fascia and the fact that I had to open the A/C system.
 
#14 ·
I shot up to a local repair shop today and had the guy purge the A/C system, and put in some new refrigerant. Given that I did not really run the heater on defrost, I did not run the compressor much since I finished the job - and the compressor uses the refrigerant as a lube. (In the defrost position the car uses the compressor to run the heat on to the windshield....)

At this point, I am going to consider the job 'done' and (again) hope that this will help someone out there.
 
#15 ·
Does not seem fun at all! My '11 is at 142K and probably still on all original cooling components...

Also, I hope your Dexcool comment was a joke! These vehicles CANNOT take standard off the shelf coolant like that. You need HOAT coolant. Zerex is probably compatible, but I'd just buy it from the dealer and play it safe.
 
#17 ·
HOAT coolant. ... never heard of it until today, I will investigate ... I thought that what was drain(ing) out of my car was DexCool because of the color; ... interesting.
 
#21 · (Edited)
As a closure (of sorts) to this job: I was able to flush and re-fill the system with the Zerex G-05 coolant. I estimate that there is still a bit of dexcool in the system, because I did not use all of the 50/50 mix I had intended for the job (I used a bit more than 3gal of the mix I whipped up for the job, and yes, I used distilled water, even though I am not sure if the Jeep will be able to taste the difference....).

SO: A few observations.

1) I used distilled water for the flush job. It would not get the heater HOT in the car during the flush job, even though I cycled it a number of times to get it to try to pass all of the old coolant through the system. And during the flush: I had the service engine light pop; I can only assume this is because I was using 100% distilled water, and it was not happy about that. It kept running the EC fan during the flush.

2) I ran the car with the fill of G05 coolant mix in the finishing stages of the job:
The HVAC/heater was MUCH more efficient. Warmed up very quickly, and blew VERY hot. (See hypothesis in #3, below).

3) The G05 coolant is yellowish in color. It is also much less 'slimey' in texture. I did not taste it (nor do I make a practice of tasting toxic chemicals like coolant), so I cannot tell you if it tastes different from DexCool. Hypothesis: I am thinking that G05 is much less 'dence' in composure, and is able to do it's job a bit better through the radiator while passing the heat (via heat-transfer, even though that class/topic was not my best acedemic performance) through the heater core. I also noticed that the truck seemed to run a bit better on my quick test drive, but this may be a placebo effect.

I will borrow a code-scanner and figure out why it threw a code in the near future. I do not believe that it is related to the rear wiper which has decided that it does not want to operate any longer in the past 48 hours....

OTHERWISE: I think that I can call this a 'done' job.
 
#22 ·
Good to hear you got it done. As an aside or afterthought I wanted to mention that the 3.6L (not sure about V-8) has an air bleeder on the thermostat housing next to the upper radiator hose. Unscrew the bleeder when pouring in coolant and you can get more in or the specific amount you need for the system.
 
#23 ·
There is a bleeder on the HEMI as well. I used it, while burping the upper rad-hose and adding more coolant.

I am assuming that the bleeder is in the same place (slightly north-east of the thermostat), and was put in THAT place because it is in the highest part of the system, which will force an air-bubble to that area and you relieve it accordingly.
 
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#25 ·
A final update on this ...

I had a friend loan me his code-reader and I was able to clear the code (air intake temp circuit: high current) and the engine light is now turned off. Seems to be running much better of late.
 
#27 ·
On my hemi-equipped WK2, the fan/shroud can come out without pulling the radiator. It CAN, but it is not easy; and takes some slow fidgeting to get out of the engine compartment.
 
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