Hi everyone,
I am new to this site and hopefully I can get some answers to my car's issues. I recently purchased a used 95 Camry LE with the 2.2 engine. It has 212,000 miles, so I realize I have some maintenance items that will be hitting. Anyway, the car was running great until over the weekend it started heating up. I had notice a noise in the waterpump area beforehand. I changed the thermostat, and radiator, same issue. I then decided to tackle the waterpump! Boy what a job that was!!!!!! When I removed the old waterpump I found 6 impellars broken off and laying inside where the waterpump goes. I thought, yippee, I found the problem. I put everything back together, new waterpump included but the new pump is not pumping, what gives????? The top hose gets hot and the bottom hose stays cold. After about 15 minutes the car will start rising in heat towards the "H" on the guage.......HELP!!!!! Any ideas?????

 

Did you find all the pieces to the pump, some may have traveled into the engine and plugged something up. Are all the radiator hoses clear on the inside, T-stat installed correctly with hole or jiggle pin in the up position?

Might try removing the T-stat, then back flushing the engine with a garden hose. With T-stat removed, fill with water, remove radiator cap and determine if the water is circulating.

 

I actually thought about the backflushing idea. This is a dumb question, but which way does the water circulate? I am thinking the pump pulls water in from the lower hose, goes through the engine and out to the radiator through the top hose, correct? So backflusing it would be done through the top hose, correct?

 

Yes


Yes, through the engine, not the top of the rad.

 

OK, got home this evening and decided to tear back into this damn thing! I pulled off the gooseneck part that has like 3 hoses, 2 electrical connections and 2 small vacuum hoses, geesh! Anyway, I took it off thinking that if there were any pieces of the impellar left, they may have lodged in here. None were found. At this point my car still did not have the termostat in it. I took off the hose on the water pump side and stuck a garden hose in it. I was surprised to see water start to flow out the other side, the pump started working finally! I took the gooseneck on the waterpump side back off and put the thermostat back in. I hooked the hose back up. I then "primed" the other side after reconnecting all the hoses. I left the hose to the radiator off to see if the pump was still working. I fired the car back up and bingo, water was pumping great! So long story short, I think by priming the high side I forced the air back out through the engine block through the water pump side, this then allowed the pump to pick up and start pumping from the radiator low side, problem solved, The car is running great and no leaks! Wanted to post this up because not too many answers seemed to be left after an initial problem in asked. Also, for those that don't believe a waterpump can brake the impellars off, well I'm here to tell ya they can! The waterpump I took said made in Japan, original? Anyway, 6 of the seven impellars were broken off and found in the opening where the waterpump sits...it can happen and makes a noise like that of a rock being bounced around inside a can. I will post a pic up in a few minutes........

 

Great job!

Have read about one other Camry with broken pump blades, but would not expect this.

Are there 7 blades on the pump or 8, from the photo can not tell.

Only state this because the pump should be self priming. It should not require using a hose, thus still wonder if something was stuck in the cooling system.

BMW's used to have plastic blades which would break off, Yak! The blades would become stuck in the engine, the result was a host of cooling issues.

Great job in finding the problem!

 

I'm not sure how many impellars were on it originally. I found 2 extra ones crushed up along with the 4 in the pic and the 1 on the pump still. That's 7 total. The new pump's impellars were so thick I know I will never have to worry about them doing what this old pump did..........I can't believe how cheap and flimsy it was.........

 

At least they were not plastic!