99 Lincoln Continental Water Pump

Maintenance/Repairs
1

So the water pump has started leaking today on the ol’ 99 Continental. Figures. On Thursday I got new tires. Friday I washed and detailed it. Saturday I gave’r new brakes. …And on Sunday the water pump goes. This is the thanks I get, eh car!!!

So now my quandary is to either replace it myself, or pay a mechanic to do it. I’ve done dozens of water pumps myself before, but always on RWD cars where I had more room to work with in the engine compartment.

THIS case looks pretty intimidating though. Not a whole lot of room on the passenger side of the engine bay, and frankly I can’t even really get a good look at the water pump it’s so buried in there.

So, questions are:

A- Has anybody here ever done the job yourself? If so, how much of a p.i.t.a. was it?

and

B- How much $$$ can I expect to hand over to have a mechanic do it?

Thanks.

2

If you can drain the coolant, remove the serpentine belt, move the generator out of the way, remove the four bolts from the water pump pulley and remove the pulley, and remove the four bolts that mount the water pump, I don’t see why you can’t do it.

Tester

3

Ehh, it looks harder than it is. Just start removing items that are in your way until you can access and replace it. Loosen the water pump pulley bolts before you remove the serpentine belt. Remove the right front wheel and inner splash guard to give you more access and light.

Around here the water pump would be around $100, gallon of coolant $20, new belt $65, labor $180.

4

Chilton labor times

OEM time 1.4hrs

'regular time:" 2.2hrs