I am using my mom's (original owner) 2000 V6 Accord with 43,000 miles and am suspecting the water pump is leaking. The antifreeze level is up and it wouldn't leak under the pressure test. The mechanic sees stains down the timing belt cover and when the car sits I see antifreeze(dirty) on the floor. Isn't this kind of unusual to happen after such low mileage? He thinks so too and wants me to keep an eye on it. I'm leaning to the water pump regardless. I was quoted for the water pump, timing belt, and cam seals $600. I know the belts don't get changed to around 90,000 miles and I may not be keeping this car for much longer (my mom is 87). What would be a good price to change the water pump? Can I drive for much longer without changing it? Thanks all.

 

Aloha Bocatrip: Welcome to the forum, enjoy your stay, and hope we can all assist you. Antifreeze is good for about 2 years in the car, the car being a 2000 is 7 years old, the anti-freeze should have been changed 3 times, and the oil each 6 months or 3-5k miles. Car has low milage but oil and antifreeze should be replaced at time intervals due to milage is low. View this for antifreeze info http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antifreeze, Also oil info may be in here also.
I have a neighbor that does all my heavy maintenance for my 02 civic, he says its about 350.00 plus parts to change the belt, water pump, cam seal, crank seal,on a 4 cyl accord at the shop. Your car is out of warrenty unless you have an extended warrenty ( idea to purchase if keeping the car) before you get it fixed. Honda shop is more expensive to fix the waterpump/timing belt, etc.

 

For whatever reason, for the last 2 weeks there is no more coolant leak. The water level stays the same and there is no visible sign of antifreeze. Any ideas on this one?

 

By using the car, it may have sealed the leak, continue to use the car and monitor all the fluids. You still might want to check into the last time any of the fluids had been changed.

 

The actually place that had the leak was the bottom of the upper rt engine mount. There are 2 bolts underneath where I saw a brownish fluid for a few days. I cleaned the bolts up under the mount and noticed the fluid again the next day. Eventually, it stopped all together. Does that mount have fluid? Was that the problem all along? Can that mount work fine without fluid?

 

I am not aware of any mounts that have fluid in them, there may be a possibility of the fluid running down from the leak to the mount. I'll need to do some research to see where the fluid area is to the mount. And I beleive your v-6 has a timing chain, not a belt.

 

My car does not have a chain. The mount that showed the fluid is on the top right side of the engine. There is nothing higher than this location. The fluid was coming up from the 2 bolts holding the engine mount.

 

you are correct on timing belt, viewed in Majestic Honda.com parts manual does showa belt. Also found that the v-6 has two electronically controlled (active) engine mounts and a side stopper mount with a (passive) hydraulic bushing to hlep minimize engine vibration on v-6 models. found in http://corporate.honda.com/press/art...20010221001316 the leak you found could be from the hydraulic bushing.

 

Thank you for your help. This was quite helpful. At this point I would be pretty certain that the "mysterious" fluid I did see for a few days might very well have been coming from the upper ride side mount.