Water pump or head gasket?

[Dadscx9]

How can i tell if just water pump went out or if head gasket blown?

Got in the 9 after my wife drove it few miles today. I could smell antifreeze in the AC as soon as i started it. Drove about 10 miles home and noticed the temp was 3/4 up. As soon as i went to pull on my lane car shut off and i drifted into driveway. Popped hood and all the coolant is gone and checked the oil, antifreeze in oil. I started it up in driveway and barely runs at idle and has a noise in top end which i figure is broken pump, hopefully. So how can i tell if its the pump or head gasket? Thanks guys!

 

[eskimo0101]

With the top end noise I'd definitely do a compression test. That's not a 100% accurate test if it's the head gasket since you can get a coolant leak that doesn't always affect compression but I'd say 9 times out of 10 it's right. Basically if the test comes back with low compression you've found your issue, but if it comes back with good compression there's still a chance the head gasket is causing the coolant loss.

Were you getting any white smoke out of the tail pipe? If yes head gasket.

 

[Dadscx9]

Now that its daytime and got a better look at car can see coolant directly under where water pump is. I thought the pump was on drivers side but its on passanger side and noise i hear when started is coming from pump area. No coolant in exhaust. AAA just picked it up taking to mazda dealership.

 

[kornholio]

What year is your cx-9?

 

[Dadscx9]

What year is your cx-9?

2008 grand touring with 118,000 miles.

 

[kornholio]

wow at least you got 118k out of your water pump. Mine went out at under 70k miles. How much do you think the dealer will charge you for this? do you have an extended warranty. When i got the invoice back from the mazda dealer it read 1,643 dollars.

 

[Dadscx9]

I only got 500 miles on it since i bought it. Warranty didnt cover it unfortunately. The dealer told me $1350, 12 hours at $95 per hour plus the new pump. I told them to put a set of spark plugs in it to since they will have easy access so im sure with that added be alittle more.

When your pump went out did the coolant get in the engine?

 

[kornholio]

I first started noticing that the coolant level was low. So I went to the dealer and bought a gallon of the FL-22. I topped it off and then 2 days later it was low again. Then I refilled the overflow and went to get gas. This was on a Saturday then I heard a sound which was like water pouring from somewhere. I looked down and noticed that my water pump was taking a piss. I went home refilled it and went to the dealer which was open that day. The temp gauge was still half way which was amazing to me. The dealer said that some coolant got into the oil because the pump is driven by the timing chain so 20 dollars of that 1643 was for the oil change. I only paid 130 because I had extended warranty. You are getting a good price at 1350 and the labor is cheap at that dealer at only 95 per hour. That is what the indy shops charge here in nyc.

 

[Dadscx9]

Quick update, the dealer called and told me the impeller on the water pump broke off. No other damage luckily.

 

[Dadscx9]

Got the 9 back today. $1680 for new water pump and new spark plugs replaced. Theres a note on the bill about transfer case having burnt oil on top of it from the breather valve. Mentions that i have rubber valve stems, why would they mention that? Also says something about the control arms being corrected and it being covered by warranty. Im going to crawl under it tomorrow check out the control arms and change the transfer case oil.