Tallon535

Last night I was driving and started smelling something like rubber burning. I started to pull over to check where the smell was coming from and heard a fairly loud squeeling and the burning smell got stronger. I pulled off the road and I heard a *snap* and my check guages light came on. Lost my power steering and everything. I turn the car off and coast to a stop.

Upon further investigation, the serpentine belt snapped and is twisted and kinked all to hell and melted in a few spots. Got the car towed home and looked a little closer to try to find out why it broke. There is a very shiny worn spot on the bottom of the water pump pulley so it looks like the water pump seized up and the belt was just rubbing across it. This would explain the burning smell and the reason for the belt breaking.

My question is this: what would cause a water pump to unexpectedly sieze up like that? I wasn't running the car particularly hard that night. The water pump has about 80k miles on it. Do water pumps usually just lock up when they get old like this? I have an underdrive pulley that we installed. Is there any chance that the pulley could have caused this?

I'm just trying to find out the cause here so I can get it fixed right this weekend. I don't want to have to be worried constantly that I'm gonna lock up another water pump and be stranded somewhere. Thanks for the help guys!

2000 TAWS6

iTrader: (1)

My went at 73K, didn't seize, but it started to leak. I think your problem was water pump failure due to age. I think the LS-1 water pumps are not the strongest link in the chain. If anything, the pulley would slow down the water pump and cause less stress on the bearing.

Good thing it only takes about a half hour to change. Picked up a new one, not rebuilt from Autozone for $ 130.

You can follow any of the electric water pump installs to see how its done.