Hi, I just bought a 97 honda accord, I forgot to check under the hood after driving the car and missed the coolant leak. It has a new radiator, so that shouldn't be the issue. Here's a couple videos, I can't find out where it is originating from, so I took a couple videos in hopes that someone else would be able to identify the issue for me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdA4ELH9Ai0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vV_gZuxD6HA

Thanks for any help.

 

Wow that's really coming out of there! Bummer! What size engine is that? I'm not familiar with Honda engines, but I bet your water pump is run off the timing belt and that is whats leaking. The pump would be buried under that front cover which is why it looks like the water is pouring out from behind the harmonic balancer, or crank shaft pully.. Unfortunately that will take some work to get to and you might as well replace the timing belt while you are in there. Do you know the last time the timing belt was done? It should last about 80,000 miles or so and the water pump was probably replaced at the same time. If it was freshly done within a couple hundred miles that should be under warranty from the shop that did it incorrectly. How well do you know the person you bought the car from or do you still have their number? They owe you money back cause there is no way they didn't know about that leak when they sold it to you. Those don't develop that bad over night. You won't be able to drive far without losing all your coolant and overheating your engine! And if you were thinking about it, don't try and use a stop leak in this situation. Good luck, sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

 

I believe its the 2.7, I know its the v6. I only paid 500 for it so if the water pump is the only issue I think I'll be ok. Is changing the water pump something that should be left to a professional? How much does somethibg like that tend to run? Thanks for the help.

 

If you don't have a lot of experience doing car work a water pump and timing belt job can get a little tricky. You might need to make/rent some special tools to hold certain pulleys while you remove the nuts holding them on. You will probably also need a pulley remover like a steering wheel puller not like a 3 jaw remover cause those will bend things. I'm sure you can find good sources that explain everything that is required for the job on this site or youtube. Or buy a copy of the shop manual for your car, I'm not a fan of Haynes Manuals, I like to track down the factory shop manuals. If you aren't confident in your abilities, I would suggest bringing it to a shop. Again, I'm not too familiar with Honda engines, but I think you could expect a timing belt/water pump job to run around $1200. Depending on how many miles are on the car and how long you plan on keeping it you might even want to pull the heads and bring them to a local machine shop to do a valve job. New head gaskets as well. Not to add more to your plate but if you were that far into the engine and wanted to drive the thing forever now would be the time to do all that. Call around some of your local shops and do more research on what the job entails and then decide how deep in you are willing to go! Good luck.