How to tell if the water pump ruined my engine?

Hi all,

I have a 2013 Mazda CX-9 that almost definitely lost it's water pump a couple days ago. I left the grocery store and heard some noise from the engine. Instead of immediately stopping, I drove for a couple miles (you know, because I'm an idiot) but noticed the temp gauge going up. I stopped before it actually overheated, but it was heading towards the high side of the temp gauge.

I checked the oil after I parked it and it was WAAAAY overfull and very runny. I'm about 98% sure that my water pump blew. The engine never seized and I didn't really let it get too hot, though it did make some weird noise. Almost like a whirring (which i had only ever heard when a water pump on a neon I had went and was machining the timing cover from the inside).

Is their any way to tell if I blew my whole engine or if I can get away with a water pump? One person I read mentioned changing the oil and running for just a minute to listen for valvetrain/rod noises. I would take on the water pump repair myself, along with the 40 page guide from this site if I thought it was worth the time/effort/money.
 
Unless you checked the oil in the very recent past, there's no way to know how long the pump has been leaking. Pumps usually start with a slow leak, and that can go for a period of time, before they completely wet the bed. And if it's been leaking and diluting the oil for a while, then lots of serious damage has almost certainly happened. The only way to know for certain would be to tear it completely down and take a look. IMO the prospects are not very good.
 
Is the coolant level actually low?

If there is water in the crankcase it typically mixes with the oil and turns to a chocolate/coffee milkshake-like color. Does the oil smell like antifreeze? You could send an oil sample off to be tested and they can tell if there is coolant in the oil by looking for certain elements.

You can fix the water pump for about $200 in parts. It's really the time that's the question. If you think you can do it by following the guide I'd say go for it. At worst you are out a couple hundred bucks and a weekend of time.
 
@jal142,

1. Yes the coolant level is actually low (empty)
2. There is chocolate milk/ coffee milkshake in the engine. After draining there was about 2 gallons of the stuff (and my oil was anything but overfull prior to this so I figure there's almost a gallon of antifreeze in the oil)
3. Interesting thing to note... it's a cold day in new england and the oil wouldn't drain well until I warmed the car up in a heated garage. Weird.

I drained the antifreeze, drained the oil, put in about a cup of K-1 and 5 quarts of oil. Started it up and it ran fine. Upon initial start up there is a brief whirring sound but I believe that to be the slack in the timing chain caused by a failed water pump to be taken up. After this, it sounded good, reved without any noise, and didn't exhibit anything that would make me not want to repair this engine.

I plan to go at the job soon, but want to get parts on hand before.

My new question is: Can a failed water pump cause oil in the antifreeze? I would think it definitely could, but I'd hate to do all the work just to find out that I need a head gasket. My father mentioned doing a compression test which makes sense to me, especially since I have some relatively fresh oil in it to lubricate when spinning over.

Thoughts? Would you guys all go at this as well? I *really* don't want to have a 10k lawn ornament, so I'm either paying, or performing a water pump install, or a new engine. Possibly both, but I hope not.
 
Normally you don't get oil into the cooling system when the pump goes. The oil isn't under pressure behind the timing cover, it's draining down into the pan, so there's no force pushing it into the cooling system.

The VVT solenoids are susceptible to damage when the oil gets contaminated, I'd consider replacing those if you decide to tear into it. The downside is s that they aren't cheap.

It's a tough call. In the current car market, I'd probably try to fix it if it were me.
 
Hi all,

I have a 2013 Mazda CX-9 that almost definitely lost it's water pump a couple days ago. I left the grocery store and heard some noise from the engine. Instead of immediately stopping, I drove for a couple miles (you know, because I'm an idiot) but noticed the temp gauge going up. I stopped before it actually overheated, but it was heading towards the high side of the temp gauge.

I checked the oil after I parked it and it was WAAAAY overfull and very runny. I'm about 98% sure that my water pump blew. The engine never seized and I didn't really let it get too hot, though it did make some weird noise. Almost like a whirring (which i had only ever heard when a water pump on a neon I had went and was machining the timing cover from the inside).

Is their any way to tell if I blew my whole engine or if I can get away with a water pump? One person I read mentioned changing the oil and running for just a minute to listen for valvetrain/rod noises. I would take on the water pump repair myself, along with the 40 page guide from this site if I thought it was worth the time/effort/money.
I had been driving my 2000 BMW 528i at least 3 times with coolant temperature at the highest and red warning light flashing due to “exploded” water pump、erupted radiator、and broken serpentine belt. Each time I drove 5 ~ 10 miles to get home with stops cooling down the engine and the engine seemed to be fine with no oil consumption issues. I use Castrol 5W-40 full-synthetic oil that should have helped too like the Castrol commercials in early days. But it’s a BMW not a Mazda, although I believe your 3.7L V6 should be fine from the slight overheating if you use full synthetic oil. Like edmaz said, the problem to you is the coolant could have been in your oil for a while if you don’t check the oil frequently. The true damage of the engine is unknown unless you actually disassemble the engine. IMO with some test-runs you did after the water pump incident and you didn’t hear any unusual noises, and you didn’t aware any low oil pressure situation, you can safely assume any possible engine damages should be minimum. Not to mention blown head gaskets or damaged cylinder heads due to minor overheating.
 
I’m no mechanic but learned a great deal when our 2014 CX9 with 100k miles water pump failed. No need to bore you with the details, which is well documented by anyone CX9 owner on the Internet forums that experienced water pump failure. Mazda dealer replaced the water pump for $2,300 and told me that engine needs to replaced for about $5k because they found metal scraps in the oil after they said I’d only need to replace the water pump. No guarantee that a replacement engine won’t experience the same issue. Decided to take the loss and sold the car for about half the market value of a healthy CX9.

Even if the water pump failure rate might be low, I would not take a chance on driving a car that could potentially die middle of driving, which is what happened with our CX9.

Shame on Ford cyclone engine designers that decided to save space and insert the water pump inside an engine.
 
If it didn't make any ticking or knocking noises, you should be ok. Make sure to flush & clean all contaminants before rebuilding.
 
Update: Car is back on the road! Whoo Hoo!

I phoned a friend when I was upset because the compresssion tested bad. My friend ended up coming over and most of the work as he used to work at dealerships. Now I am awaiting new brakes to go into her which was needed before, but is REALLY needed after sitting for over a month.

Pro Tip (from my friend) Don't do a compression test with rags still stuck in the intake to keep debris out. The numbers will make you cry for your engine. I *thought* I had 2 bad cylinder readings. Mechanic friend was like... let's just check compression for the heck of it. Pulled out the rags and got an acceptable result. (I don't remember the results, but the 60 psi cylinder was really more like 140... once the airflow wasn't restricted.)

Now... anybody know how to put apple carplay into the same car? lol
 
Pro Tip (from my friend) Don't do a compression test with rags still stuck in the intake to keep debris out.
Um, ya. LOL

I just started compiling the parts for my "navigation upgrade"; this is how I will be getting Apple Car Play (and a several other cool features).....

Stereo_015.jpg
 
Update: Car is back on the road! Whoo Hoo!

I phoned a friend when I was upset because the compresssion tested bad. My friend ended up coming over and most of the work as he used to work at dealerships. Now I am awaiting new brakes to go into her which was needed before, but is REALLY needed after sitting for over a month.

Pro Tip (from my friend) Don't do a compression test with rags still stuck in the intake to keep debris out. The numbers will make you cry for your engine. I *thought* I had 2 bad cylinder readings. Mechanic friend was like... let's just check compression for the heck of it. Pulled out the rags and got an acceptable result. (I don't remember the results, but the 60 psi cylinder was really more like 140... once the airflow wasn't restricted.)

Now... anybody know how to put apple carplay into the same car? lol
It’s very nice to have a mechanic friend ⋯ (y)
 
Pro Tip (from my friend) Don't do a compression test with rags still stuck in the intake to keep debris out. The numbers will make you cry for your engine.

I laughed a little at this, but I know I've done some dumb things that had be completely baffled....and felt like an idiot once I figured out the problem was operator error.
 
I laughed a little at this, but I know I've done some dumb things that had be completely baffled....and felt like an idiot once I figured out the problem was operator error.
My wife has a penchant for asking me stuff like. Did you turn the gas on? I once took apart and cleaned a carburetor twice on something because I forgot that I had finally fixed (and closed) the gas shutoff valve... I was preparing to disassemble a third time when she asked me.

Cocktail that night: 1 part thankfulness, 1 part humility, 2 parts shame, and a glass of red wine.
 
Update: Car is back on the road! Whoo Hoo!

I phoned a friend when I was upset because the compresssion tested bad. My friend ended up coming over and most of the work as he used to work at dealerships. Now I am awaiting new brakes to go into her which was needed before, but is REALLY needed after sitting for over a month.

Pro Tip (from my friend) Don't do a compression test with rags still stuck in the intake to keep debris out. The numbers will make you cry for your engine. I *thought* I had 2 bad cylinder readings. Mechanic friend was like... let's just check compression for the heck of it. Pulled out the rags and got an acceptable result. (I don't remember the results, but the 60 psi cylinder was really more like 140... once the airflow wasn't restricted.)

Now... anybody know how to put apple carplay into the same car? lol
Its been almost a year now. Did you get the water pump replaced? Was it worth it? Is the engine still running ok? I have the same issue now and same decisions to make.
 
Its been almost a year now. Did you get the water pump replaced? Was it worth it? Is the engine still running ok? I have the same issue now and same decisions to make.
Hi NFN2000.

My post is in the event the OP doesn't respond.

Read EdMaz post #2 response to OP in this thread above.

Like Edmaz said, if it's been awhile then probably there is engine damage, it's just a question of how much.

Based on your other thread...it's been leaking coolant a long time.
You're hoping the engine is ok but you can't know for sure unless it's tore apart.

The dealer wants to replace it completely. But you need a second opinion to make sure you're not suckered.

The only thing you can really do is have a local trusted mechanic look at it, replace the water pump with new coolant and new oil and hope for the best and maybe just run it til the engine dies then get a salvage engine.

After you get a 2nd mechanics opinion, your 4 options are:
1 )fix water pump &change fluids. Run it til it blows. Save up $$ for repair.
2.) Replace engine with salvage or reman.
3.) Replace engine with new $$$
4.) Have engine rebuilt.

Good luck.

For future, anytime you need to add more than a half filled small juice cup(2 oz) of coolant per year, then best to get it to mechanic straight away. And if you get a new engine or a new car, maybe run some occasional UOA oil analysis reports every other oil change.
 
It's difficult to say for sure whether a bad water pump ruined your engine without inspecting the engine itself. However, there are a few signs that might indicate engine damage:

  • Metal shavings in the oil: This is a serious sign that the engine has been damaged. When the engine overheats, it can cause metal parts to seize and grind against each other, creating metal shavings. These shavings can then circulate through the engine oil, causing further damage.
  • Milky white oil: This can be a sign that coolant has leaked into the oil. Coolant is made of water and antifreeze, and when it mixes with oil, it creates a milky white substance. This can happen if the water pump leaks or if the head gasket is blown.
  • Loss of power: If your engine has lost power, it could be a sign that it has been damaged. When the engine overheats, it can lose power because it is not able to function properly.
  • Knocking or ticking noises: These noises can be a sign that the engine has sustained internal damage. When the engine overheats, it can cause the pistons and rods to expand and contract rapidly. This can create knocking or ticking noises.

    If you are experiencing any of these signs, it is important to have your engine inspected by a qualified mechanic as soon as possible. Early watertechguide detection and repair can help to prevent further damage.
 
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A couple of items on this old thread...Mazda chose a Ford engine where a (no-surprise) water pump leak goes into the engine instead of the usual way of leaking out of the pump to the ground. Poor choice by Mazda. Making it worse is the fact that in these cars the engine must be removed from the car at significant cost to change the water pump. Another poor choice by Mazda.

The cylinder compression is not the main point of failure from contaminated oil. Damage to the engine bearings and crankshaft will be the top item. Running the engine with milky oil full of coolant kills engines.
 
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