Hello,

I just recently bought a '95 Prelude to use as a daily driver to save a little gas. The car looks great but the water pump has a small round hole in the right side of the housing. Losing coolant rapidly. I called dealer and they said the $4.00rubber plug needs to be replaced. They then told me the water pump had to be removed in order to install plug on the inside of housing at a labor cost of $375.00 since they would have to remove the timing belt to get to the water pump. My engine is the single over head cam. It is not the V-tec! Naturally if the pump has to be removed I will install a new one since the car has 210K miles on it. I also plan to put on a new timing belt.

Can someone please post the shop instructions for removal and replacement of the water pump and timing belt. I believe I can do this job myself as I changed out the head on a '81 Honda Accord several years ago by myself.

Has anyone else out there had this problem with their water pump?

Did the dealer lie to me about the pump having to be removed to install the rubber plug?

Can I tap the hole and screw a short bolt into it to seal it rather than installing the rubber plug?

Can I seal the hole with JB Weld?

Please help me if you can!

Thanks
Sanford