How To Replace Water Pump 2001-07 3-3L 3-8L Dodge Caravan
Created on: 2015-03-23
Watch this video to learn how to replace your own water pump. The experts at 1A Auto show you how to replace the water pump on your 01-07 Dodge Grand Caravan or Chrysler Town and Country.
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step 1 :Draining the Coolant
- Have a drain pan ready
- Insert a tube to the drain
- Turn the valve a quarter turn counterclockwise to remove it
- Let the coolant drain
- Remove the radiator cap to speed up the process
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step 2 :Removing the Wheel
- Loosen the 21mm lug nuts with the vehicle on the ground
- Raise the vehicle with a floor jack
- Secure the vehicle on jack stands
- Remove the lug nuts
- Pull off the wheel
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step 3 :Removing the Inner Wheel Well Panels
- Pull off the four pins in the wheel well with a flat blade screwdriver and a pair of pliers
- Remove the two Phillips screws on the edge of the bumper cover
- Remove the inner wheel well
- Pull down the second panel to remove the pins
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step 4 :Removing the Air Intake
- Remove the 10mm bolt from the air box
- Disconnect the relief hose
- Pry out the red safety clip from the air flow sensor with a flat blade screwdriver
- Disconnect the air flow sensor harness
- Loosen the hose clamp holding the intake tube to the throttle body
- Pull up the air box
- Remove the hose from the throttle body
- Undo the clamps on the air box top
- Remove the air box top
- Remove the air filter
- Push the box to remove the clip on the side
- Remove the air box
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step 5 :Loosening the Engine Mount
- Jack underneath the engine for support
- Remove the three 15mm bolts from the engine mount
- Lower the engine a little with the jack
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step 6 :Loosening the Water Pump Pulley
- Loosen the three 13mm bolts that hold the pulley to the water pump
- Move the belt tensioner with a 21mm wrench to remove the belt the power steering pump pulley
- Put the tensioner back into place
- Remove the belt from the water pump pulley
- Remove the 13mm bolts from the pulley
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step 7 :Removing the Water Pump
- Have a drain pan ready
- Remove the three 10mm bolts from the water pump
- Remove the two 15mm bolts that hold the engine mount to the body
- Jack up the engine
- Remove the last 10mm bolt from the water pump
- Maneuver the water pump and pulley out
- Wipe off the area with a rag
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step 8 :Installing the New Water Pump
- Seat the O-ring onto the water pump
- Transfer the plug from the old pump to the new one
- Insert the pulley onto the pump
- Insert the pump and pulley into place
- Preliminarily tighten the five 10mm bolts
- Tighten the 10mm bolts between 12 and 13 foot-pounds
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step 9 :Reinstalling the Water Pump Pulley
- Insert the three 13mm bolts to the water pump pulley
- Place the belt around the crank pulley
- Bring the belt around the water pump pulley
- Loop the belt around the power steering pulley
- Bring the belt down around the tensioner
- Pull the belt over the alternator
- Lift the tension up with a 21mm wrench
- Bring the belt around the pulley to the right of the crank pulley
- Tighten the three 13mm bolts to the water pump pulley
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step 10 :Reinstalling the Engine Mount
- Insert the engine mount into place
- Jack up the engine
- Tighten the 15mm bolts to the engine mount
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step 11 :Reinstalling the Air Intake
- Insert the air box into place
- Tighten the 10mm bolt to the air box
- Insert the air box cover into place
- Clasp the clamps to the air box cover
- Connect the mass air flow sensor
- Plug in the safety clip to the sensor
- Connect the relief hose
- Tighten the air intake hose clamp with a flat blade screwdriver
- Remove the jack to lower the engine
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step 12 :Tightening the Radiator Hoses
- This step is only necessary if you disconnected the hoses
- Clip the remaining hoses to the heater lines
- Slide the clamps in place
- Tighten the 10mm bolt to the bracket
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step 13 :Installing the Inner Wheel Well Panels
- Push the inside panel into place and replace the clips
- Push the wheel well panel into place and replace the four clips
- Tighten the two Phillip screws to the edge of the bumper cover
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step 14 :Reattaching the Wheel
- Slide the wheel into place
- Start the 21mm lug nuts by hand
- Tighten the lug nuts preliminarily
- Lower the vehicle to the ground
- Tighten the lug nuts to 100 foot-pounds in a crossing or star pattern
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step 15 :Refilling the Coolant
- Push the radiator drain in a quarter of a turn to a vertical position
- Turn the plug 90 degrees with pliers to close the valve
- Refill the radiator with the correct 50/50 mixture until the radiator is topped off
- Tighten the radiator cap
- Refill the coolant reservoir to the max fill line
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step 16 :Testing the Coolant
- Start the vehicle
- Circulate the coolant by turning on the front and rear heat
- Check the coolant level after 10 minutes of driving
- For the first few days of driving, check to make sure the coolant level is between the max/min fill line
Tools needed
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Socket Extensions
Phillips Head Screwdriver
Jack Stands
Drain Pan
Rubber Vacuum Hose
Ratchet
Cloth Rags
Floor Jack
Needle nose pliers
Anti-Freeze
Complete Metric Socket Set
Brought to you by 1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the Internet.
Hi, I'm Mike from 1A Auto. I hope this how-to video helps you out, and next time you need parts for your vehicle, think of 1AAuto.com. Thanks.
In this video, we're going to replace the rear heating tubes on this 2003 Caravan. It's the same as a lot of these Caravans and Town and Countrys, and they often rust out in the back where they connect to the hoses. We'll show you how that works. You'll need a new tube assembly from 1AAuto.com, pliers, catch pan, Phillips screwdriver, various metric sockets with a ratchet and extension, maybe something bigger for some extra leverage, jack and jack stands, and some extra coolant to refill.
I'm going to start by draining the radiator fluid or the coolant. Under the driver's side, if you look up under the side of your radiator, you'll see there's a drain here. I'm going to connect a tube just to help direct the coolant. If you can turn it with your fingers, do it; if not, use pliers. You want to turn the square valve a quarter of a turn counterclockwise and pull it out. Have a drain pan underneath and let the coolant drain until it stops. Once you've started the coolant, you can actually open up the radiator cap and that'll allow it to drain even faster.
Remove the passenger side front tire. If you don't have air tools, start with the vehicle on the ground, loosen the lug nuts, then raise and support the vehicle on jack stands and remove the wheel and tire the rest of the way.
There are four large push style pins. Grab the inner wheel well and pull out. You can see I am trying to pull out that top pin there. You could possibly use a large screwdriver going underneath and dislodge those pins. There's another two over to the right and there's one up above as well. A pair of needle nosed pliers can be helpful to get these out as well. Now remove the two Phillips screws that are right on the outside of the wheel opening, and then pull the inner wheel well over to the side and back down and out of your way. This inner shield is held with two pins right up top. I just pull it straight down to get those pins out.
We're going to remove the air box. There's a 10mm bolt right here, remove that. Then use a screwdriver, pry up on the relief hose, and pull it off. Then the airflow sensor, I should have taken a better picture of this, but the airflow sensor plugs in back. There's a little red safety clip that you pry out with a screwdriver. You can see it there. Press the tab and disconnect the airflow sensor. Loosen up this hose clamp that holds that intake tube onto the throttle body. Now you can pull up on the whole air box, and then pull the intake tube from the throttle body. There is another pin holding it to the side. I open up the box. Just undo the clamps (there's a clamp on the side and a clamp on the back), and you can take the top of the air cleaner box off and pull the air cleaner out. There's a little clamp in the side, so twist it to the side, and then you can pull the box up and out. One of the cushions stays on the stud, so I just took it off the stud and pushed it back onto the air box.
Support your engine with a jack. Again, you're not trying to lift the car up with the engine, you're just supporting it. Then you want to remove these three 15mm bolts, and I'll fast-forward here as I remove those bolts. You'll see as I remove the third one the weight of the engine actually comes off of the mount and it comes up a little bit. Once you remove those you actually want to let the engine down and give yourself some more room at the top, but still support it with the jack a little bit.
Now you want to loosen the three 13mm bolts that hold the pulley onto the water pump, as you can see I'm doing here. Use a 13mm wrench and loosen them up until you can move them with your hands a little bit. You don't want to take them off yet, you just want to loosen them. I'm going to remove the belt. You can see I'm using a 21mm to move that belt tensioner, and then I pull the belt off of one of the pulleys that you can't see, bad shot on my part. Remove the belt from the water pump pulley, and then get the bolt out of the way and now remove those belts the rest of the way with your fingers. Then you pull the pulley off.
It doesn't come out because of the low clearance between the pump and the body of the car. I have the new pump here to show you where the holes are. Four of the bolts are pretty easy to get to from this vantage. You can see two of them right there. One of them is a little higher, and one of them is over on the left. Have a drip pan in place, and you're going to remove those bolts. The first three use a 10mm socket and ratchet, and the three that are right down close to the bottom are really no issue. I'll fast-forward as I take those out.
Again, 10mm socket and ratchet, use an extension if it helps. The bolt that is furthest back and highest up is probably the most difficult one. You'll have to have your vehicle up on jack and jack stands and have the jack supporting the engine. You can see the oil pan and the oil drain is there, and I'm reaching up through a brace near where the exhaust is. You reach up and over the back of the water pump and get access to that fourth bolt, the bolt that's highest and most furthest back you basically get from behind. The top bolt, the last bolt, you want to remove your engine mount the rest of the way. Remove the two bolts that hold the mount to the body.
Now we're back up top. Remove those two bolts and then pull that engine mount up and out. Raise your engine back up, and this will allow the best access to the topmost bolt in the water pump. Reach in there with your 10mm socket and ratchet and remove it. It's a little bit hard to get access to. It's a small space so you have to work it out slowly. Then reach up in and the pump will come loose. It's a matter of twisting a little bit, and then you lift it up and out. Then pull it and the pulley out at the same time.
Make sure that you clean up the mounting area where the water pump goes. Mine was fairly clean and I just used a paper towel. Wipe it down, make sure there's no residue left.
Make sure you get the O-ring well seated onto the water pump. Then there's a little plastic plug that you can transfer over from your old one.
Then combine the pump with the pulley and put it up into place. I'm going to fast-forward here. You want to start all five bolts in, get them finger tight first, and then you want to go around two different times. One time just make the bolts snug with your socket and ratchet, and then the last time you want to tighten them between 12 and 13 foot-pounds. It's really impossible to get a torque wrench in there, so basically as tight as you can get it with a small 1/4 inch socket and ratchet will work fine. Again, put them in by hand, making sure you get them all started by hand first. Then tighten them snug, and then tighten them up with a 1/4 inch ratchet and socket. You'll have to lift up and lower the engine a couple of times as you do that to top and lower bolts. Position your pulley and start it in with three 13mm bolts. Tighten those up as much as you can by hand.
Then we'll put the belt on, and you can tighten them up after the belts on. Start the belt on. Get it around the crank pulley, around the water pump pulley, and you actually want to have it off of the right hand pulley. From the top, make sure you get the belt up over the power steering pump pulley, which is the one that is up high and in the back, and then down underneath the tensioner. I've got to pull it off of the lower pulley just a little more to give it some slack. Down under that tensioner, and then pull it up onto the alternator. Now it's on all the pulleys except that larger lower one that's to the right in our lower shot. Use your large wrench again on the tensioner. Push it up, which brings the tensioner down, and put the belt around. Then check it on the lower pulleys. Up top, make sure that it's on the alternator well, and back on the power steering pump correctly.
Now tighten up those three 13mm bolts on the water pump pulley, and you can usually get to two of them easily. What will happen is when you get them really tight enough, the pulley will start slipping in the belt, and you can pull the other bolt around so you can reach it. Put your passenger side engine mount back in. Now you'll want to jack the engine back up somewhat into place. I'll fast-forward.
Start those three top bolts in before you start the bottom ones in. Don't tighten anything up. Get them all five started first, and then you can tighten the bottom ones up and the top ones. I tighten them preliminarily with the air tools, and then I use a ratchet handle to tighten them up.
Put the air box back in place. There's actually a clip on a harness that I had taken off, so I resecure that and then push the air box back in place. Secure it with that 10mm bolt. Then put the lid back in place, push it in, and lock the clips back on. Be careful, I did get the wiper washer hose jammed in there a little bit, that's why I'm having a little trouble with it. Once I got the hose out of the way it went together fine. Make sure you plug in the mass airflow sensor and put that safety clip back in. Put the breather hose back on and tighten up the clamp. Then you can remove the jack.
Underneath I'm putting a couple of new clips onto the hoses down here, and then get them onto the new tube assembly. Once they're on there, I'll set the clamps in place and tighten up that 10mm bolt that holds that bracket. Fast-forward a little bit, put that lower cover back in place, and it has the two pins up in there. You've got to feel your way in there, set those pins, and get that in place. Now flip the inner fender back in, set it in place, and then put those three pins in place to hold it. Then reinsert the two screws that hold the wheel well to the fender or the bumper cover.
Reinstall your wheel and tire. Put the two lug nuts on that are opposite the Schrader valve or the full valve, and then you can pop your hubcap on if you have hubcaps. Then put on all the rest of the lug nuts. Then you can let your vehicle down, and you want to make sure you torque your lug nuts to 100 foot-pounds.
Now you want to make sure that you reset your radiator drain. Make sure you push it in. It should push in and then turn a quarter of a turn from the horizontal position to the vertical position. We pushed it in, and then we needed pliers to turn it the 90 degrees to get it to close.
You've drained your cooling system, so you want to refill it with the correct 50/50 mixture. You're going to fill the radiator directly. You fill it, you'll see it come to the top, and then it'll go down some. Fill it again until you top off the radiator. Replace and secure your radiator cap.
Then you're going to want to fill the coolant reservoir. It's over near the battery, and you basically want to fill it to the max fill line.
Then you're going to want to start your vehicle up and check for any leaks. Get it to idle, get the engine up to temperature, and make sure there's no coolant dripping anywhere. You'll see just in a second as I finish up, we'll draw a little line for you. There is a mark on the bottle, but I also drew a little line for you there digitally. That's basically the max fill line.
You start your vehicle up, get the coolant to circulating. This vehicle has rear air. You want to make sure you turn on your front heat and your rear heat as well. That'll help get coolant circulated to those portions of the heating system. Start it up, monitor your coolant in your coolant tank. Drive it for about ten minutes. You'll note that probably the heat doesn't work right away. It'll take a little while for the heat to work. Check your coolant after the first ten minutes of driving, drive it again for another ten minutes, and for the first few days that you drive the car, check that coolant tank and make sure that you're always between the minimum and the maximum line.
We hope this video helps you out. Brought to you by www.1AAuto.com, your source for quality replacement parts and the best service on the Internet. Please feel free to call us toll-free, 888-844-3393. We're the company that's here for you on the Internet and in person.
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