(’93 945T) My water pump has a very slow leak, a few drops per night. I picked up this car about 7 months ago from my brother-in-law, he had bought it in ’95. He said that he has had a similar leak twice, one time he had the water pump replaced and the other time he just had a new gasket / seals put on it, the last time was 2 or 3 years ago.

Question 1: Are leaking water pump gaskets that common of a problem? It has normal green antifreeze in it, is this harsh on Volvo water pump gaskets? From the FAQ, I ran across this: “[Stephen Goldberger] It [Dex-Cool] is claimed by the manufacturer to leave a thinner inhibitor layer on the metal, resulting in improved heat transfer, and it is claimed to be less abrasive to the water pump seals…” The car is not overheating or anything, it’s just a very slow leak from the waterpump and every month or two I add some more antifreeze to the fill tank.

Question 2: A new water pump, with gaskets and seals, runs ~ $50 at IPD (on sale now), I assume that I should just go ahead and put on a new water pump rather than trying to replace the gasket on the existing pump? I’ll be changing the timing belt also, it has ~ 50,000 miles on it so it’s due (it’s $25).

Many thanks to Spook who told me in another thread how to properly drain the radiator using the nipple under the oil filter, I had pictured just undoing the lower radiator hose and hoping to catch it in a pan (a messy job at best), the nipple (with ½” ID hose) sounds easy enough.