Overheating

[ZQuigley]

I just bought an 88 festiva that has a problem over heating. I replaced the fan and that is helping a bit, but I believe the water pump might be going out. How do I find out for sure that it is and how do I go about replacing it?

[SiliconSoul]

If I remember right you can remove the thermostat and try running it without. You should be able to see a steady flow of coolant then moving through the rad.

What does the coolant look / smell like?

[Flyin4stroke]

Check the radiator. If the coolant smells like burnt oil you have a head gasket causing your overheating. Seems like more and more head gaskets are failing not the water pump. Luckily they aren't hard to do. I've done 2 in the last month on efi festys.

[bravekozak]

Test the rad cap.

[TominMO]

Welcome to the Forum!

If the WP was going out, you would either hear the bearing squealing, or at least see coolant coming out the weep hole on top of the WP (you have to pull the top timing cover to see it).

Could also be rad cap failure, or thermostat failure, very old/not enough coolant, or clogged radiator itself. Head gasket failure as mentioned too, which goes back to not enough coolant.

From your question about how to replace a WP, I strongly suggest you first go get a Haynes manual for Festivas, to save a lot of time asking very basic questions, and also give you some instructions, specifications (like torque settings), and pictures.

General rule of thumb: start with the cheap and easy repairs like rad cap and thermostat, if you have any doubts about them; then move to the more difficult/expensive repairs.

Try running the heater in Defrost or Foot to see if the temp comes down. Good emergency trick to get home, since the heater core is essentially another radiator.

If you do have to do anything that requires draining the coolant, also check out all the hoses to see if they need replacing: two radiator, two heater, and the small bendy one that connects the bypass tube to the block, under cylinder #4. There is another one that goes from the intake manifold to the bypass tube, behind the distributor (if you are looking from the front of the car).

[WmWatt]

What are the symptoms of overheating that make you think it's the water pump?