Coolant Pump Seized

June 5, 2011

Driving home fro a shopping trip yesterday when the Battery light came on on the dash and a Warning to stop or attend to failure of the Battery.

Stopped the car and lifted the bonnet to find a mangled and broken alternator drive belt still smoking and a terrible smell of burning. It was the burning and the broken belt that was the clue that this just was not a normal belt failure.

Tried to rotate the alternator pulley - OK.

Tried to rotate the coolant pump pulley - zilch.

I have an extended warranty.

so called Toyota - who called the AA - who turned up about 50 mins later and towed me to my local Octagon garage. Left the car there an now waiting for them to examine and advise if this is a Warranty or not.

I guess the pump seized and that broke the belt, so the pump and the belt should be replaced under the Warranty. Together with other consumables such as the coolant itself.

Anybody have any idea what is the cause of these regular pump failures??? Although the coolant level was just below the MAX mark, I have never seen any evidence of leakage or discolouring of the pump area. 59k miles on 07 Auris 1.6.

The only clue I have from this Forum is of poor manufacture. Any ideas???

Cheers

Krait

June 5, 2011

Sorry to hear this I would be a little disappointed if it happened to me, you would expect utter reliability being a Toyota & fairly new. Put that to the side, do you have the engine under tray bolted on under the car? If not it could be a stone or road debris that could have caused the belt to mangle. Never heard of the water pump seizing could may well be a tensioner that’s failed?

Please keep us posted hope you get it sorted!

June 6, 2011

I wish it was something simpler than the pump too. But, when I saw the broken and burnt belt, I knew that one of the pulleys had seized. On checking, the pump pulley would not rotate. And today, Octagon have confirmed that the pump needs to be replaced as it has seized. And they also confirmed that, as I have an extended warranty, the repair will be done under warranty.

thank Heavens. (heaves a sigh of relief).

Krait