Water Pump Leak 1997 Sunfire Gt

[busty]

I believe I have a water pump leak. I have read elsewhere in this forum of similar problems. The threads were quite old so I thought I'd place a new one hoping readers check and respond to newer threads. I also am not sure where my water pump is located on my Gt 2.4 L. I will try to upload a photo. I think in this site you have to check the gallery at the bottom of my thread, to see it. If you can, you will see a drop of orangish-red liquid which is my anti-freeze. As you, who own Sunfires know, we have to use expensive dex-cool anti-freeze. I have already gone throuh about six litres worth trying to find my leak. Any help, or suggestions would be appreciated. It looks to me, through the photo and what I could see while crawling under the car where I took the photo , that it might be a gasket. What do you think? Is it an expensive repair? One article in this forum said about $800. REALLY! I hope not.

[busty]

This is a reply to my own post: well my fears were true. I had to replace the water pump. CTC (Canadian Tire Corp.) in my home town didn't want to do it as the mechanic thought he might run into trouble, so he said to take it to the dealer. I called the dealer and the service manager told me it was a big job and I'd be looking at about $1000.00. So I got another mechanic whom I knew to do it. Final bill came to $846.10 cdn. However there is an awful noise coming from the engine, which now sounds like a deisel engine. I took it back and the mechanic told me that the timing belt adjuster, which runs on oil like a piston, probably has an air lock in the oil and should go away eventually. If it doesn't within a week, he said to bring it back and he'd look at it. He said the timing belt itself was ok, etc. and he didn't want to replace it as it didn't need to be replaced. The car definitely idles very noisily, but is not noticeable when driven.
Any thoughts? Thanks

[madsunfireowner]

I have a 97 sunfire GT also and i have the same problem, my water pump was leaking too and i was going through several litres of Coolant and you know how expensive that stuff is. Anyways, i went and got it fix and now my car is making the same loud diesel truck noise that you mention in your post. I took to a mechanic to try and get it fixed and it cost me 800 bucks cnd and the noise was gone for awhile and than it came back and with vengence, now my car heats up very fast and the noise gets louder as the car heats up. When driving you dont even notice it but when you stop and at low idle you can hear it like other. I was wondering if you got your problem fixed? how much it cost and is there anything i can do to get it fix without spending alot of money.
Help Please. you can email me at [email protected]

thnx