The garage told me that my water pumb needs to be replaced, on my surbarban 2003. They said it is not like a other water pumbs, they said on a surbarban the antifreeze is beening thrown against the moter or a shaft??? What are they talking about? And could it be something else causing it to leak out once in a while. Not very often to I have to put antifreeze in the surburban when it gets low, however it appears to be getting worse. Help! Thank You!

There is a "weep hole" at the bottom side of the waterpump housing to begin leaking to stop the thing from destructing in a fashion that might cause damage to the radiator- totally normal, change the waterpump...confess I've the same problem on the mini but is so tight, I can't even get my hands in there to even see it, but it's smelly and losing a couple of CC;s of coolant every drive- next major service will have this tended to----yours is a cakewalk and if you are charged more than $60 for the job, you're getting taken advantage of~ (plus parts)~

obviously the weep hole is plugged and it's pouring out of the shaft side....replace...nothing particularly special about it~

its odd for a pump to leak intermittently.and theres no way the weep hole could be plugged If they applied pressure to the system they should be able to show you the water streaming out. the pump itself is around 60 the labor sholud be around 150

Agree somewhat with Roy. Weep hole is clogged and hot fluid pressure is pushing coolant by the propeller shaft of the water pump. Pressurized fluid will find weakest link when escaping from closed system. RockAuto has water pumps for approx $30 for 2003 1500 or $70 for 2500 Suburban. However, $60 for the job is low. You should expect 1-1/2 to 2 hours labor for the job which is approx $150 depending on your local market.

and yes doc there are ways for the weep hole to be plugged, front bearing slips forward out of position? that would explain the looseness and subsequent leakage...gave you ten, my man---you seem like a right guy!

"antifreeze is beening thrown against the moter or a shaft?"...sounds like you're referring to the fact that this waterpump uses the frontside of the timing case as it's backside, yes coolant is always sloshing around on the front or the timing case~

Roy, dude if either bearing slid that far the impeller would be scraping on the housing so bad you would know the pump was bad

yea doc. seems to be the score~

If you see or smell antifreeze it is one of two things: radiator hoses or water pump or both. Laws of averages, it will go out on a long Sunday drive in the middle of nowhere if you don't get it attended to. Good time to change the serpentine belt also since they have to remove it. Have a pressure check done first to find if any other parts need replacing. I just had mine replaced on my Bonneville, and two small hoses were also leaking. This was after 104,000 miles. New belt and all new hoses plus water pump was a total of $320.00.

wish they all had the basic Stant radiator cap so the pressure tester would work, many Japanese and others have the smaller cap and some like Volvo use the reservoir for pressure testing and need an adapter...should be something with everyone with a cooling system should have in their toolbox~ some cheapo cars do not even have a radiator cap but use removal of the top hose...cheeeeep-0~

if you wanted to finish this whole business of hard rubber, cracking or soft and oily/squishy butyl rubber hoses you could spend MORE money on silicone hoses from Summit racing and other suppliers, the kind the cop cars use on their police interceptors....for extreme reliability~

Reminds me of an old cowboy that put a $1000.00 saddle on a $100.00 horse and tried to sell it for $1000.00. Nice to know the $12,000 cars and the $50,000 cars use the same hoses, last the same time, only costs 4 times as much to replace.

...back in Berkeley, we'd swap the silicone hoses from unsuspecting BMW motorists getting smogchecks and swap them with butyl- rubber...we weren't a very morally-centered bunch, but which mechanics do you know actually are?

Apologies all around for pricing the labor at one hour shadetree 1996 price of sixty bucks MrT2013 is more in touch with 2013 prices, and will defer to his bill-and-a-half assertion~