I recently replaced my water pump and hoses.. The old one had a significant leak around the passenger side of the gasket and it was also leaking from the weap hole... However now I've got leak I can't seem stop, where the radiator lower hose connects to pump. I repositioned the clamp a couple times and I can't seem to get it to stop leaking... it looks like it gets past the clamp and then runs down the hose and drips.. it's a fairly slow leak.. I have a drip pan under it and I clean it every day hoping I solved the leak only to come back out in the morning to find more drips of coolant. Any ideas...maybe the hose or clamp is no good?

 

Make sure the clamp isn't too close to the lip of the water pump, or it won't clamp right. Also try tightening it more.

 

It looks like it's too far down to me. There's a lip on the water pump and then the hose should have a lip on the inside that they should slide over and the clamp should go above the lip on the water pump to ensure suction.

 

Thanks guys... I think it's the clamp itself... It's loosening on it's own after a heat cycle. I've read clamps can do this. I had no idea a worm drive clamp would loosen up and do this... There's a different clamp available at parts stores called a "Constant Tension" hose clamp... I'll try one of these and see if that fixes things..

 

There are also some new clamps on the market called Thermoplastic hose clamps, you use a heat gun on them. Gates makes them and they are sold by napa, I have not used mine yet but I will be using them soon and will post back with the results. They were a couple bucks each.

I had this same issue with the weep after a new water pump and new hoses, I kept adjusting the hose clamp until it stopped but recently my upper hose is doing the same thing on very cold mornings. This leads me to try the thermoplastic hose clamps and higher quality Gates or Goodyear hoses instead of parts store junk like Dayco.

Otherwise I have had good experience with constant tension tbolt clamps in the past with turbo hoses, but it seems overkill for a rad hose.

 

Could be a bad hose too.. however after tightening the clamp a couple times only to find it loosened after I had driven the Jeep.. makes me think it's the clamp... We have also been having extreme cold weather conditions here..Interesting your mentioned that. Thanks for the info!!

 

Yea it's probably the clamp. Thoe clamps tend to come loose and not retein tension on the hose. The stock ones are great but such a PITA to move..

 

looks exactly like weep hole leak from here..

 

Man I hope not on a brand new water pump!

 

Anythings possible if you get up under there with flash light at least you will be certain its not.

 

Just to familiar looking...

 

What ended up being the root cause?

- Bad new water pump?

- Leaking new lower radiator hose (requiring gasket sealer)?

- Bad new worm gear clamp?

 

I have never seen a worm clamp do that, nor heard of it.

It's probably just an El Cheapo that doesn't work correctly. There is nothing wrong with worm clamps.

 

Mark - for once I disagree with what you say. IMO worm clamps are horrible. Why do you think you never seee them on factory vehicles? A spring style clamp is the way to go. Again just my 2c.

 

Cost. Spring clamps are cheaper to make and faster to put on, which translates to assembly line speed. That's all that matters.

I've seen a few really pathetic worm clamps lately, which were obviously just very poor quality, and I've had one break at the mechanism. But my success rate with worm clamps is very high.

IME spring clamps leak like a sieve any time they have to be reused.