Vanishing coolant has been the story of my life this year.

The AC in both my 940 and c70 died, and after I repaired/recharged them both, both began to leak coolant - rapidly. The C70 had a tiny head gasket failure that turned into a full head gasket job followed with exhaust repairs/upgrades, and a lot of additional minor repair work under the hood. That chapter is finally over, so now I get to turn my attention to the 940.


So... 1995 940, 8-valve Wagon with 240k. I replaced the water pump, expansion tank (with level sensor) and radiator back in early 2005. Since then it's had irregular (when needed) maintenance - struts, brakes, tires, hoses, tune up, etc.

This year, I had to replace the AC compressor on the 940 after the original clutch, shims, and seal fell off... somewhere... After a replacement and full A/C recharge, the grey cap on the expansion tank cracked and failed.

I replaced the expansion cap a month and a half ago with a replacement grey cap, but other issues have arisen since.

On the September 16, the radiator plug blew out, crippling the car for the day. A $4 replacement rubber grommet from the dealer and liberal soap allowed me to fix that issue.

However, coolant is still vanishing. This time, I can see it coming from the water pump/head seal area. The pump has been on there for over 6 years and 75k miles. I've got a replacement on order.


Thing is... I'm thinking I'm playing whack-a-mole and treating the symptoms and not the real problem. I'm fairly sure this is not another headgasket failure. But I'm not sure what's going on - aside from a failing water pump.

Does a failing pump sound consistent? The pulley doesn't feel loose, but that says nothing about the condition of the impeller...

Any thoughts?