A tale of 2 water pumps

[PaulE]

Last week I drove my 2003 S to work and on the way home the light in the temperature gauge started flashing, while the gauge continued to read just over 180 degrees. I made the 60 mile trip home, saw that I had a leak and added 3 quarts of distilled water. Saturday I had it flat bedded to my independent Porsche specialist, who I heard back from today. My water pump packed it in after only 3 years and 24,000 miles, which is the earliest he'd ever seen that happen. I replaced my original water pump on my 2003 S in 2014 at 42,000 miles as a preemptive move. At that time I went with a metal impeller pump, as I was more worried about plastic impeller chunks breaking off and getting caught in the heads and cooking the engine than a metal impeller blade grinding out the inside of my block. You can burn me at the stake, but after discussing it with my garage, My mechanic has seen ruined engines from broken plastic impeller bits caught in heads but has caught the metal pumps before they ground into engine block cavities, and he runs a metal impeller pump in his own car. So I'm going to go with a metal impeller blade again. The impeller didn't come in contact with my block's cavity. I'm not saying it can't happen, I think there are pros and cons to both options. Either way, it's important to check your water pump on a regular basis and replace it preemptively.