How do you replace the water pump on a 2000 Dodge Neon?

Answer 1

The water pump it internal. Not inside the engine itself but it is spun using the timing belt. You need to remove all the acc. belts and the timing cover and the pass side motor mount. Its a pain in the butt but can be done if you have the right tools. Go to the library and access the all data and get a printout. It will give you step by step instructions on how to do it. I us the all data all the time. Its cheeper than buying manuals for all the cars I work on.

If it's anything like the water pump on the 95 it's not a pretty sight.

On the 95 I had to pull the passenger front wheel and remove the plastic to get to the engine.

Needed to remove the upper left motor mount. Remove the serpentine belt. I believe I removed the lower pulley (not easy) than the timing chain cover. The water pump was behind it and that took like 5 minutes to replace.

Unless your handy with tools and knowledgeable, I wouldn't tackle it by yourself.

The water pump is driven by the timing belt. The cooling system needs to be drained and the left engine mount needs to be removed (with a jack and a block of wood under the oil pan) so that the engine can be jacked up. All the belts need to be removed and the crankshaft pulley removed with an appropriate puller. The timing belt cover need to be removed along with the timing belt and timing belt tensioner, then the water pump can be accessed.

For a full description buy a chilton or hanes manual, also autozone.com has free access to this full procedure.

If you do not know anything about cars don't try this yourself as the engine is an interference design thus the valves (and possibly pistons) can be damaged if the timing is incorrectly set or if either the crankshaft or camshaft is moved by itself.

If replacing the water pump, also replace the timing belt and the tensioner while you have it apart, if the idler pulley (tensioner) ceases the timing belt will break causing severe engine damage so always replace the idler pulley.