Adam/Brando - Thanks for your earlier input on my previous post. It turns out that the alternator wasn't the culprit, but instead the water pump. From where I was looking at it, you could see the white crusty corrosion covering the top portion of the water pump casing.

My mechanic recommended that a flush of the coolant system be done in conjunction with it. I'm wondering though that if any small metal pieces may have broken off inside and started circulating in my engine, will the flush purge most of it, if not all? He also recommend that I replace the bottom coolant hose and thermostat.

Seeing that he's going in that area of my engine anyway, I gave him my other parts to replace at the same time: new timing chain and gear set, new interruptor magnet, new timing dampner, new balance shaft drive gear set, crank and camshaft position sensors, and all the gaskets. Oh and yes, a new water pump too.

And finally, he noticed that my front brake pads were completely worn out. So I gave him the go ahead to change those out as well.

Well, I am very hopeful now that this will be it for a long time. He has to keep the car for at least 2 days to get the work done. In the meantime, it's back to my trusty old bicycle.

wow... thats a lot of work! It'll run like a top though. Good thing you arent waiting until the timing gear goes before replacing it like me... Mine went one day in a parking lot and thank god that was all that happened. I've heard of cars losing the timing gear and mashing valves against pistons... But I just went to turn the key and pop, it snapped. Only had 103,000 km's on it at the time, so it was a big surprise that it even happened at all.

Water pump eh? Not that bad to replace. All the other stuff is pretty easy to if you have the patience.

I gotta replace brakes too, on the highway at 80mph I have no brakes at all. Well I do, but they just pulse and grind. So hopefully yours aren't that fully gone

I told my mechanic to save the old parts. I'll post some pics for "show and tell" when I get them back.

Nice! Show and tell! Put that water-pump on a gold necklace, you would be big pimpin'!

Too bad you aren't in the Southern CT area, I'd do that all for free and show you how too.. I do stuff like that at least once a week If you ever wanna learn how to do brakes, its super easy with a jack and the right size socket Generally a few well placed curse words for your first time, and a screwdriver too.

Well guys. I got my car back today and I posted the pics in the album section of my profile.

Adam - I've dedicated the water pump picture to you.

If any of you want to see what a really screwed up water pump looks like take a look at my old one.

onfir3 - Yeah bummer man. I'd love to learn. Thanks for the offer. I'll keep that in mind if I'm ever up in your area.

Well that water-pump looked...uhmmm way wose then mine. I could actually driven mine a couple miles, it was just drippin slightly. And your brakes look like mine... wuh-oh Anyways, glad you have your car back.

I guess the difference between me and you is, I have to do all my own work cause I can't afford the labor cost. Not that, that is a bad thing. Well, at least I learned quickly I don't wanna be a mechanic anymore

mysterhk, you didnt tell us the most important thing - how does it run now???

Aaron,

It runs like a champ!