I had a metal on metal pinging sound

[yellowboxster01]

I was on my way to my nephew's bday party on Sunday and there was this slight pinging sound at first, then it got louder and quit altogether. I got off the highway and about a mile from my sisters house my car starts smoking, white smoke though. I pull into her neighborhood and my power steering completely gives out. I high tale it to her house and shut off the car. All of the lights lit up on the dash right before I shut it down. There's white smoke pouring out from the passenger side of the car.

My dad told me it was probably a busted antifreeze line and it was leaking onto the power steering belt. I left it there and had it towed into the shop Monday afternoon. Turns out it wasn't a busted line but, the water pump completely caved and basically blew up. My mechanic told me it was pretty rare for that happen on a Boxster that only has 60K miles. It shredded the belts also. I'll take a pic of the mess and post it later.

That repair was pretty heavy on the wallet...

Anyone else have this happen?

[Boxtaboy]

The water pump imploded on my 01 Boxster at 59k miles, and I was lucky I made it to the dealer without having to get a tow. By the time I got there, the coolant resevoir was about empty and I had a nice puddle under the car. The water pumps installed in the 01 models must have been made to croak at 60k miles.

[yellowboxster01]

Luckily my car never over heated. It never got above normal operating temperature and I got no CEL. When it was just sitting it never leaked any coolant but, when they pulled it up on the flat bed it started pouring out.

[Boxtaboy]

Yeh...mine didn't overheat either. I should say my coolant tank read at the minimum mark by the time I got to the stealer, so there was obviously still a lot of coolant in the engine. Regardless, with plastic impellers in the water pump, it's no surprise that they don't last all that long.

[Jake Raby]

Water pumps fail... at 60K they are done with their service life.

[Paul]

I guess I'd better think about replacing mine in my 01 with 82,000 miles. What's the best pump available?