Well.... you're nothing if you can't make fun of yourself so here I go.... Out using backhoe one day. Noticed some water dripping from front of engine. Presuming it is the water pump finally going bad, I order a replacement. Me not having a clue how any other brand is plumbed (I have a JCB), it has a "Y" on there that splits off to feed the machine, another leg to the filler tube and if I recall, a "U" shaped hose as well. Point being there are a handful of connection points to get it all apart/together. Got it done, filled it up and took her out for a spin to build the temperature. All was fine...... until the NEXT time I took it out. Now I noticed water dripping again, essentially from the same place. Well, crap.... I need to get to this FAST because I don't know how long I have to return it as defective. I take the machine out the next day to replicate the problem.....heat engine..... not a drip. So I finally presume that ....well, to be honest, I don't know WHAT I presumed..... (maybe I'm a dumbazz???) Yesterday, took it out to clear a small path, got on/off couple times and I saw it. Another stream coming from the nose of the engine. Stopped everything, drove it to house, raised loader so I could see better (and nervous as anything to not get too close to arms should they decide to fall) DANG it, I still can't clearly see in there.... get flashlight. Look. Water is clearly spurting out but I can't be sure where. It looks like it's on the port (I think the pump has an outlet if needed and it has a plug in it). Does it have TWO ports and I need to plug one? Maybe I need to move the plug??? Lower arms so I can get in there, now I see the direction it's spraying which allows me to follow to the source. A bit miffed with myself, I climb down, go to tool box, get a screwdriver and put about 5-6 turns on the hose clamp that attaches hose to pump. Turn it back on....and stream is gone. Seems I found my "defective pump" oops. Dumbazz
You're not the first and you won't be the last. You found it, you fixed it. Drive on. Joe H
Not too bad when you compare to the folks that have pulled their transmission only to find a clutch out switch or solenoid not working......
Of course, now I get to eternally wonder..... do I have a $400 replacement pump that fixed my problem or, did I spend $400 when a tighten of the screw would have done it. Never mind, don't go into that discussion.... lol
The old loose hose clamp trick. New hoses will do this. You tighten the clamps and after a couple heat cycles you need to retorque them. The hoses compress a little bit. The newer silicone based hoses don't seem to do this nearly as much as standard hose. Also when you wrote water I had to keep reading to realize you meant a coolant leak vs. water.
We have all been in situations with similar circumstances. The bright side is that you now have a spare pump that may very well bail you out of bad situation at some time in the future. Be sure to get a new gasket for it.
I did something like that once
Next time you will put more effort into the "Root Cause Analysis".