Water pump - Has anyone had one fail?

jthomas999 · **Joined:** Mon Jan 16, 2012 11:51 pm **Posts:** 98

I didn't replace mine until about 240,000 miles, and it appeared to still be in good condition.

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papaindigo · **Posted:** Tue Jun 03, 2014 9:32 am

Only one I know of that had a catastrophic failure was a Crown brand aftermarket one that lost the pulley bearing after just a few miles. Vendor made good and no longer sells that product.

Other than that there have been reports from time to time of the more typical failure mode which is coolant leaking from the front seal. Hard to see as that's behind the inner (timing belt) front engine cover so the leak isn't visible until coolant emerges from the lower edge of the engine cover.

100k is a reasonable life span and 200k is probably pushing it. However, as with anything that has bearings and seals it can last a long or short time (shortest I've seen on an OEM original water pump, not CRD, was 25k miles when the seal went).

Given that you can replace all the moving parts by just doing the front 1/2 replacing at 100k as part of the TB job is probably a good idea.

geordi · **Posted:** Tue Jun 03, 2014 4:32 pm

What he said.

replacing the front half of the pump only adds about 45 minutes to the whole job, versus 2 hours to dig out the non-moving-housing of the whole thing. Pain-in-the-arse factor says just replace the pump when you are in there, versus skipping and waiting to find a leak.

jthomas999 · **Joined:** Mon Jan 16, 2012 11:51 pm **Posts:** 98

That's all I did, just replaced the front half at 240,000.

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flyfisherman99 · **Posted:** Wed Jul 02, 2014 10:45 am

I just picked up a non running CRD, found the OEM waterpump bearings have failed causing the timing belt to skip time and damaged the rockers. Jeep had 116k on it.

thermorex · **Posted:** Wed Jul 02, 2014 10:54 am

If you drive long trips, let's say over 200 miles at a time, I think a water pump will hold more due to less hot-cold cycles. But replacing it is cheap insurance, who wants a leak or worse in the middle of the road?

papaindigo · **Posted:** Wed Jul 02, 2014 11:58 am

Unfortunately predicting the time of failure for a quality water pump (ignoring that Crown one) is not an exact science. Rather it's more a matter of predicting the period of time that water pump's impeller/seals/bearing "should" last such that after a period of time the WP should be replaced just because it has likely reached the end of its service life. How long that is I personally do not know. I can say I've seen original factory installed OEM water pump seals go bad in as little as 20,000 miles on the other hand my old Dodge D250 Cummins water pump was doing fine at 125,000 miles when the vehicle was sold.

Is it a good idea to replace the moving parts 1/2 of the WP at 100,000 I'd say probably. Will one last for 200,000 I'd say there is a decent chance. Will the one you replaced at 100,000 die at 110,000 unlikely but not impossible. Best I can say is catastrophic WP bearing failure is not likely without the seal leaking first so if you do start losing coolant and identify the drip point as the WP (coolant coming from behind TB cover) best replace the WP soon.

Water pump - Has anyone had one fail?

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