Help! Broken Water Pump Bolt

[ihateduke]

I made a huge mistake tonight on my 99 RX300. I had removed my water pump and just put the new one back on. I was torquing the bolts per some WRONG info. The water pump has 2 studs, a bunch of bolts and 2 nuts that go on two small studs. So one of the small studs is the problem here. See the attached photo. The upper one snapped off. I don't think I can remove this stud like I did the others. I think it has to be pulled back through, which is impossible (or I have to rip the whole motor block apart). Just curious if anyone has any ideas?

I do have stud extractor tools, but I'm afraid to try it on one of these for fear that I may break something else.

[ihateduke]

If you look inside the block, where the good stud is located, you can see what looks like the head. If that's the case, I don't know of anyway to remove that stud. I guess I could cut it off flush, then drill out the rest. Rethread/tap the hole and use a new size bolt.

Alternately, I may just hope that it's not really needed and hook everything back up and pray.

[ihateduke]

Here's the photo again. It didn't seem to stick the previous time.

[code58]

I made a huge mistake tonight on my 99 RX300. I had removed my water pump and just put the new one back on. I was torquing the bolts per some WRONG info. The water pump has 2 studs, a bunch of bolts and 2 nuts that go on two small studs. So one of the small studs is the problem here. See the attached photo. The upper one snapped off. I don't think I can remove this stud like I did the others. I think it has to be pulled back through, which is impossible (or I have to rip the whole motor block apart). Just curious if anyone has any ideas?

I do have stud extractor tools, but I'm afraid to try it on one of these for fear that I may break something else.

Who is Duke, and why do you hate him? Duke probably caused it to break because he knows you hate him. Just trying to lighten the mood a little. I don't think it's even possible to put a bolt in through the back. It would have to be cast into the block and I'm sure that's not the case! How much torque did you put on that bolt? Had to be quite a bit for that thing to break. I'm sure the W/P calls for probably in. lbs. instead of ft. lbs. Not a very high torque. You SHOULD be able to simply use a vice grip and unscrew the broken piece. It should come right out, but remember you have a steel bolt into aluminum block so sometimes there is a little bit of seizing with "dissimilar" metals. If it doesn't come easily (may come loose with a "Pop"), don't continue to turn once it's started. Put some penetrating oil on it and let it set a little and then work it back and forth slightly to get the threads freed up before you remove it. But my guess is it will come freely once you break it loose.

[ihateduke]

You were exactly right. It actually came out really easy. Well this was my hope, but I didn't want to screw it up worse! In the manual it lists the "water pump bolt" as 69 ft-lbs. They are clearly talking about some other bolt!!!

Usually I buy OEM parts, but this happens to be an AC Delco water pump. My other one looks fine, but it has 180k on it and the dealership said it was making noise. It's going to be funny if it was fine all along and it's my oil pump that's making noise!

THANK YOU for your help!

[Ericok]

You were exactly right. It actually came out really easy. Well this was my hope, but I didn't want to screw it up worse! In the manual it lists the "water pump bolt" as 69 ft-lbs. They are clearly talking about some other bolt!!!

Usually I buy OEM parts, but this happens to be an AC Delco water pump. My other one looks fine, but it has 180k on it and the dealership said it was making noise. It's going to be funny if it was fine all along and it's my oil pump that's making noise!

THANK YOU for your help!

Breaking that stud the way it broke is pretty common on this car. You also could have used one of those extractors that looks like a spark plug socket to get it off too.

[code58]

You were exactly right. It actually came out really easy. Well this was my hope, but I didn't want to screw it up worse! In the manual it lists the "water pump bolt" as 69 ft-lbs. They are clearly talking about some other bolt!!!

Usually I buy OEM parts, but this happens to be an AC Delco water pump. My other one looks fine, but it has 180k on it and the dealership said it was making noise. It's going to be funny if it was fine all along and it's my oil pump that's making noise!

THANK YOU for your help!

Hey IHD, I think what you were looking at was the "water inlet housing x Cylinder block" which calls for 69IN. LBS., NOT FT. LBS. I believe that is the wrong part anyway, I believe what you want is the "Water seal plate x Cylinder block" which calls for 13 FT. LBS. I knew that was way too much torque for that seal plate. It's a really excellent seal plate and doesn't take a lot of torque to do the job. As i said, the seal plate (called gasket) from my DIL's RX looked like new at 130K mi. or so. The rubber gasket that is fused to it wasn't even crushed. If you got a AC Delco W/P, ALL bets are off. What kind of seal does it have? (gasket) I can virtually GUARANTEE that it won't last NEAR as long as the OEM AISIN.