2950 mile family road trip...one casualty
Posted: Wed Jun 14, 2006 3:45 am
Noticed at 2k miles into our trip that there was a grease-like substance accumulating on the crankshaft sensor, also found it several places along the serpentine belt. It did not have any recognizable smell to it. There was no noticable changes in any of the fluids so I thought it may be grease from a motor mount snubber or some other obscure thing, so we motored on with no problem. Now that I am home and able to get under the car with a good light I was able to follow it to the source...waterpump shaft seapage. Took a little of the stuff and disolved it in water and sure enough it smells/looks like coolant (I should have done this earlier). NAPA has the pump ($123) and thermostat but no hoses, the local Buick dealer is getting the upper and lower hoses ($65) for us. So it looks like I will be replacing the pump tomorrow, just in time to go back to commuting to work the next day. Other than the WP the Vibe performed great while FULLY LOADED the whole trip, couldn't ask for anything more from it. And we got 34 mpg average mileage at 75+ mph, lotsa hills and a nasty headwind all the way thru Nevada.Will post some pics as soon as the wifey downloads them.