How to Replace the Water Pump in a Jeep Grand Cherokee

The water pump is the heart of the Jeep Grand Cherokee's cooling system, circulating the coolant. A faulty water pump can cause some serious damage to the engine of your Jeep Grand Cherokee. To prolong the life of your vehicle's engine, make sure to change out a bad water pump.

Instructions

Place a drain pan underneath the radiator. When the engine is cool, drain the cooling system from the radiator into the pan. The drain is located n the passenger side lower corner of the radiator.

Take off the intake and the auxiliary electric cooling fan. This will give you more room in the engine to remove and replace the pump.

Loosen and remove the bolts on all sides of the power steering pump, which are attached to the serpentine belt. Remove the serpentine belt from the engine.

Remove the bolts that attach the power steering pump to the mounting bracket and the bolt from the mounting bracket to the engine and remove the bracket and power steering pump.

Remove the thermostat housing from the pump and pull out the lower radiator hose. Both of these parts, once removed, will begin to leak coolant, so be prepared. Replace the thermostat if necessary.

Notice a tube shaped like a hockey stick coming out of the top of the water pump. Unhook the heater hose that is attached to the top of the tube.

Loosen and remove the four bolts to the water pump, using a vice grip to carefully hold onto the pulley as you do so. Remove the water pulley.

Take the water pump out of the engine and remove the hockey stick shaped metal tube. Attach the tube to the new pump.

Clean thoroughly the thermostat housing and the block of the old gasket material with a scraper. Cover the coolant ports in the engine block so you do not get some of the material you scrape off into the cooling system.

Insert new gaskets to the water pump as well as to the thermostat housing.

Install the new water pump, tightening the bolts.

Add the water pulley to the engine, tightening the bolts.

Reattach and install all the remaining components in reverse order in which they were removed.

Refill the engine's cooling system with coolant.

Start the car and check for leaks when the engine reaches normal operating temperature.