This is a simple photo walk through of a water pump replacement that I undertook on our '95 240SX SE

One ASC Water Pump courtesy of Autozone for $39 + tax



Next thing was to remove some of the plastic that restricts the access to the fan and water pump.

Removal of air intake (not totally necessary)



Disconnect lines from air intake (I used Pliers) and then pushed them off with a flat head screwdriver



Loosen jubilee clips (not sure what Americans call them?) at the throttle body and air filter ends of the air intake tube then with a bit of wiggling & pulling it should come out easily enough.



Remove radiator fan shroud bolts.



Pull fan shroud away from radiator. Loosen hose clamp for top radiator hose (see my left finger!)



Move radiator hose out of the way. Push fan shroud back and pull up at the same time.



You can actually completely remove the fan & shroud assembly but I found it easier just to keep it connected and place it on top of the engine. Which was later moved to the side



Now you have a nice spacious work area - I'm sure you could probably get by without removing a few of the items that I did but I prefer not to get part way into a task then have to stop because I thought I could get away with doing it the "quick" way



Next I decided to remove the fan (but this is not necessary).



Slacken off the adjuster for the belt on the right hand side. You need to firstly loosen the lock nut that faces the front of the car and then loosen off the adjuster that faces the air filter unit. I had to continually loosen this off and give it quite a few whacks to get it down



Then, unbolted the water pump pulley.



Now when you pull off the pulley you have full access to the WP.



Next step is to unbolt the WP.



Then just like a Terry's Chocolate Orange - "Tap & Unwrap" should come away easy as 1,2,3 Note the plastic tray for the coolant under the car.



Now go and give your hands a good clean and get ready for the "icing on the cake" or at least something that requires similar skills

Time to apply the gasket sealer to the body of the water pump and fit the gasket on top.



Repeat for top side of fitted gasket.



At this point I cleaned up the surfaces of the engine and made sure that everything was dry before fitting the new WP. This took me perhaps 5 or 10 mins.



New WP Installed.



At this stage I closely inspected the original belt and found it to be perished and went of to Advance Autoparts for a replacement. I think our local AA is staffed by the local dimwits as I've never encountered such sub-standard service in my entire life!!! We ended up at Autozone which had excellent service - not to mention actually having the part in stock but there was a slight variation in the part number 3PK990 vs. the original 3PK995 which may explain why I had such trouble getting the belt to fit - perhaps 995 is longer than 990? Anyway Autozone had the belt for $10.99 vs. $16.88 so they were the winners on both price and customer service. (I've not normally had issues at Advance but I hit the jackpot on Sunday!)

I'll not bore you with the re-assembly photos but essentially it is in reverse order from the strip down.

Next I poured in a reasonable amount of coolant and started the engine with the heater on max. I just kept adding coolant until I couldn't put anymore in and the bubbling stopped. Actually once the coolant got hot I decided to stop as it was getting a bit dodgy



Took the car for a bit of a drive and noticed the usually stable temperature indicator was fluctuating up and down (put heater on max to safeguard engine) and then parked the car up over night in the garage.

In the morning I checked the cooland level and found it to be low.

Took car out again for a spin up I-75 and all was well

Thanks to all who posted previous information that enabled this swap to be as painless as possible
Modified by gtd65 at 6:31 PM 3/5/2007

Nice job:) Lucky you; i assume the gasket and studs/bolts came with pump. Did you have trouble getting the studs in? I used two nuts. You can strip the studs if you dont do things right.

It all came apart very easily actually.

I'm used to rusted solid bolts and nuts back home in Scotland so this was a bit of a treat to be honest.

Even although the car is now 12 years old it is still totally rust free

All the parts that came with the WP are in the first photo - including gasket & new studs.

The new studs screwed in very easily too

Only complaint that I have was getting the new belt on and the f**kwits at the nearest Advance Autoparts

Good install. When i installed my new water pump the studs were to long so i had to order them from nissan. Glad everything worked well for you.

nice clear write up. I wish my radiator was as clean as yours.

Excellent writeup! I think this will prove to be helpful when I install electric fans!

Thank you.

gtd65 wrote:I think our local AA is staffed by the local dimwits as I've never encountered such sub-standard service in my entire life!!!

I think this problem is nation wide, i forget what i asked the guy in Advanced Auto the one day, but his response was: "does it have a carburetor?" ... I've never owned a car older than a 1993 and i know for sure I told him the year/make/model.

Also they never have the parts, always the 'special order' game there.

Tech12 wrote: nice clear write up. I wish my radiator was as clean as yours.

The radiator was actually replaced a couple of years back.

The top radiator hose connection fractured - just beyond where the hose actually clamps on - I would have probably brazed the thing if I'd been here but I was working in Israel at that point in time and the neighbour fortunately saw my GF with a puzzled look on her face and offered to change it for her if she could get the part!

I think she got one online shipped for under $150 which sounded reasonable at the time

The radiator is one of those with the upper part in plastic - not something I'm very familair with but it seems to do the job well enough

CleanSfourteen wrote:I think this problem is nation wide, i forget what i asked the guy in Advanced Auto the one day, but his response was: "does it have a carburetor?" ... I've never owned a car older than a 1993 and i know for sure I told him the year/make/model.

Also they never have the parts, always the 'special order' game there.

Actually, I should have known better before I even got to the store (but they have been OK in the past...) I was washing my hands and asked my GF to call the store to make sure they had the replacement belt in stock before we drove up there.

She said, "what do I ask the guy for?", I said, "ask for a fan belt for a 95 Nissan 240SX SE".

While washing my hands I heard her say about 3 times "FAN BELT", next thing she comes through to the kitchen and says, "He's never heard of a fan belt!"

I said, "Tell him it is the belt that goes round the pulley on for the cooling fan". She tells him but he is still adamant that he's never even heard of a fan belt let alone knows what it does.....hmm

So, by now my hands are dry and I take the phone.

The guy asks, "what is it that you are looking for again?"

I said, "I'm looking for a fan belt" He says, "Faaaahhhn belt?, never heard of one of those"

I say, "you know, black belt, goes round a pulley and turns the fan...."

He says, "Oh a FEN belt!"

I say, "no, a fan belt as in F. A. N - but do you have one in stock?"

That's pretty sick! Thanks for sharing this with us! How long did it take?

nice writeup. will prove useful as i plan on swapping mine as soon as it gets warm enough.

i did the exact same thing today.... however i ran into the issue of my water pump grinding like a mother on the inside of the block when the new one was installed...seems my impellor shafts were grinding on the inside of the block...

the impellor looks the same as the one that i just bought/returned. ive tried 4 different stores and they all had the same impellors.

is there a difference between the SOHC and the DOHC's water pump??

but they both have the same part #...

should be the same. what year are you. here is my write up for dohc:

zerothread?id=220947

burntricer wrote:i did the exact same thing today.... however i ran into the issue of my water pump grinding like a mother on the inside of the block when the new one was installed...seems my impellor shafts were grinding on the inside of the block...

the impellor looks the same as the one that i just bought/returned. ive tried 4 different stores and they all had the same impellors.

is there a difference between the SOHC and the DOHC's water pump??

but they both have the same part #...

One thing I cannot stress enough when changing parts over is to compare the old and new parts to ensure that they do in fact look the same.

I got caught out once in my old AE86 when a "professional" mechanic did a brake service for me - he neglected to tell me that my brakes were not working as I drove off down the hill away from his home.....

He apologised for not letting me know but explained that the brake master cylinder had failed.....

Anyway, what had actually happened was that the pads were not the same as the ones that came out and although the calipers were operating correctly they could not move the pads onto the discs!!

It took me almost a week to figure this out.....

edit: needless to say a "real" mechanic has never had his hands or tools anywhere near one of my own cars since

mchkc240 wrote:That's pretty sick! Thanks for sharing this with us! How long did it take?

Not including going to the shop for the belt etc., probably not much more than an hour overall

i just did my brothers water pump on his 95 240 sxhis water pump quit on him 2 hrs before he tarted work so i saved the day lol

it took me 45 min cause of ur tut. iam a honda guy iam starting to work on 240 ..thanks alot ..my vid on youtube.. rhd performanchanks gtd65again ta