Noisy engine at idle

Glad to hear it is going to be a simple fix

 

Hi Guys, My first post! I have a 2007 Prius with 70K miles. I noticed my idle seemed a lot louder than normal. It sounded like tappet noise to me. But then I saw the post about the water pump. I reached in and I could feel some slop in the pump shaft, even with the belt on it!. Sure enough, when I removed the water pump belt, the idle noise was cut in half! I spent about 2 hours looking for stuff that could have gone wrong, and it was worth it because I got led right to the problem! Thanks again for your help, maybe I can help the next guy next time! Here are before and after recordings with the phone in the same position each time. Oops, wouldn't let me upload a wav file! Hmm, won't let me post links to the audio clips on my web page! lol You'll have to take my word for it! Thanks again!

 

I got the water pump out today. It was a bit of a PITA ! Instead of grabbing the face of the wheel to hold it while removing the 3 bolts, like the guy in the video, I put a socket extension in one of the holes to keep it from turning as I tried to get the bolts out. There is an easy way to tell if your water pump is on its death bed. The bottom of the pump has a vent hole. If the seal on the pump is leaking, there will be a sticky pink mess there. It you feel coolant or see anything red or pink, you WILL need a new water pump!

 

This is what the inside of the pulley looked like.
And BTW, the gasket is black coated metal. The center section is raised a little bit, like the sides of a bowl. When compressed, that ridge makes the seal.

 

Thats the weep hole. Its a good idea once in a while to get a flashlight and look closely at the front of the engine for any dried speckles of red or green which means the weep hole is...well...weeping. . if you see any at all start watching the coolant level. Also look at the belt. The belt should be replaced before it hits 1000,000 miles. Mine looked ok at 75,000 miles but i changed it ayway and when i took it off it was starting to crack.

Its a really really good idea to periodically check the rad level. Not the overflow tank that's useless. Take the plastic cover off the top of the rad and that reveals the rad cap on the left on a cool engine coolant should be right at the top of the neck and not move. You should not lose any coolant ever. If you do you have a leak or are burning it. The coolant in my rad has not moved in years.

Don' put the screws back in that plastic cover. Just fit it back on. When you close the hood its trapped tight so with no screws it takes seconds to check the coolant fluid.

Every Saturday I check the oil the brake fluid the power steering fluid and trans fluid in my other car and the rad coolant. It has served me well.