2015 Camry coolant seeping

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104000 miles. Drained and filled the radiator with Toyota pink at 99,000 miles. Went to check under the hood today and noticed dried up pink residue on the left side of the engine. Same side as the serpentine belt and water pump. Some reside is above the level of the water pump but I assume if coolant seeps onto the belt it would get blown about the engine compartment. Coolant reservoir was a little low. Anything it could be besides a leaking water pump? Seems a bit early for a water pump to go in a Camry. What's the best way to confirm a leaking water pump?
 
Look for the drip hole in the bottom of the water pump. Hose off the area carefully to get the coolant off of the parts refill the coolant and go for a drive, then inspect.
 
After I change coolant in my Toyotas, I always have to add more coolant the next day. Always. I change the coolant and drive about 10 minutes and come home and park. Next morning I check the reservoir and always have to add a little.

And I always have some pink or red residue laying around from my spillage doing the changing. I just rinse it off.

I'd fill up the reservoir and drive it another day or two and recheck it. My money says everything is fine.
 
Toyota and water pump leaks seem to go hand in hand lately. At least from antedotal web reports. If you have pinkish crust around the water pump, it sounds like it's done. You could try washing it off and see if it comes back. If it does come back, perhaps you can narrow it down--maybe you'll get luck and it's a clamp or some thing other that is easy(er) to fix.

When you did the coolant change, I presume you checked after a few days and topped off the reservoir? If you did, and it was full 5k ago, then the fact that the tank went down that much in only 5k would serve to indicate that something is amiss--but if you didn't top the tank off, then I'd do so, wash everything, and continue to monitor.
 
Yeah, I topped off the coolant about 3 times after I changed it out. There is pink crust all around the water pump.
 
Those did suffer water pump issues, I'm surprised to hear it on a later 2AR
I remember when the facelifted 2AZ launched in the MY07 Camrys, they pretty much leaked off the truck
There was a TSB
Apparently it's a very sensitive graphite seal, spinning it dry while installing can apparently ruin it
It should have lasted longer, but if all you need is a water pump and fresh Toyota SLLC at 105k, is it really that bad?
 
Originally Posted by Leo99
Yeah, I topped off the coolant about 3 times after I changed it out. There is pink crust all around the water pump.

Sounds like it's toast. Doesn't matter if zero other 2AR-FE's have had bad water pumps--anything mechanical can fail.

IIRC the 2.5's in the RAV4's did have a few bad years too, but a quick search isn't showing that--I know the V6's did have issues. Maybe I'm remembering wrong. But any water pump can just decide that it's had enough of life.
 
Originally Posted by The Critic
Aisin WPT895, $54 from rockauto.


I'm too impatient. Bought a US Motorworks for the same price. Have one more bolt to install on the new one that won't go in. I can't see it as it's under the pulley. A storm just rolled in so I'm waiting it out to finish up.
 
Here is the postmortem

Old gasket was hard but intact and not brittle. No signs of gasket failure. The cylinder on the block was scratched on the bottom. Not sure what that means. The mounting surface was very clean. I wiped it down but wasn't much to have to clean. The bolts were very difficult to remove because the shallow sockets were too short and the deep sockets were too long. Needed something between shallow and deep. Used an assortment of 1/2, 3/8, and 1/4 sockets and extensions and deep sockets to get them off. My mini 1/4 extension is defective and has metal debris in the female end. Can't get it into a ratchet. The bolts went back in easily except the bottom bolt that is hidden from view. Took quite a few tries to get it threaded in.

I'm the worst at serpentine belts. Really struggle with them. Get them off easily. They always seem about 1/2" too short when going on. After trying for 45 minutes, had to pull the wheel and get the belt on real snug under the crank pulley. That gave a little more slack. Then it got snug halfway on the alternator pulley. Disconnected the battery and cranked the crankshaft pulley a couple revolutions and it finally aligned. Start to finish it was 5 hours. That includes two breaks due to rain storms passing through. One hour for that one bolt and 90 minutes to replace the serp belt. Hope my lower back and hamstrings don't bark too much tomorrow. If it goes again, I'm probably taking it to a pro and paying.
 
The pumps are designed to weep a little at times. In the future replace it with a Denso. Generally speaking the water pumps rarely go bad on Toyota and are incorrectly diagnosed as being faulty due to the design allowing for some weep. In 35 years I have only had one water pump replaced on a Toyota. That one was replaced on my Tundra because they failed to read the TSB from Toyota about the pump weeping. I wasn't too happy!
 
Leo, did you have to remove the alternator? I've looked at this on our 2015 and it looks a helluva lot easier to get to with it removed. I feel this is a job I'm going to have to do sometime in the future as I'm getting intermittent whiffs of coolant. Seems to be the common thing on these.
 
Originally Posted by Leo99
I'm the worst at serpentine belts. Really struggle with them. Get them off easily. They always seem about 1/2" too short when going on. After trying for 45 minutes, had to pull the wheel and get the belt on real snug under the crank pulley. That gave a little more slack. Then it got snug halfway on the alternator pulley. Disconnected the battery and cranked the crankshaft pulley a couple revolutions and it finally aligned.

Sorry to hear that. But on my '11 Camry I took one look at the two serpentines it has and said... nope! One of the few "simple" jobs that I elected to pass off to a local shop--when it was due I simply had it done along with the annual vehicle inspection. I am NOT looking forward to having to mess with it if/when the water pump goes!
 
Originally Posted by Delta
Leo, did you have to remove the alternator? I've looked at this on our 2015 and it looks a helluva lot easier to get to with it removed. I feel this is a job I'm going to have to do sometime in the future as I'm getting intermittent whiffs of coolant. Seems to be the common thing on these.


I didn't remove it. Didn't see a need to. Did have to remove the tensioner as there is a bolt a little behind it. And you can't get the bolt out with it in place. That was very easy to remove and replace.
 
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