new waterpump - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

silverboxter · 08-10-2007, 08:12 PM

i really love this forum and i really love my 01 base box. just wanted to share this experience. last week i was at best buy looking for a nano ipod for the wife. when i got to the parking lot i noticed a leak (green...always thought coolant on a pcar was pink) under the box. anyway, got it towed to ******************************** bavaria in san jacinto, ca and hoped for the best. got home and checked this site. seems that pcars w/60k miles have the water pump go out. further reading showed that this would cost around nine bills. not good news but at least i knew what to expect. well, when i got the call that it was a leaking water pump and it would cost $750, i was prepared. it's a nice chunk of change but this forum prepared me for it...for what it's worth. well, i got her back and she's running great! thanks forum and thanks ********************************!

Boxtaboy · 08-11-2007, 03:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by silverboxter

i really love this forum and i really love my 01 base box. just wanted to share this experience. last week i was at best buy looking for a nano ipod for the wife. when i got to the parking lot i noticed a leak (green...always thought coolant on a pcar was pink) under the box. anyway, got it towed to ******************************** bavaria in san jacinto, ca and hoped for the best. got home and checked this site. seems that pcars w/60k miles have the water pump go out. further reading showed that this would cost around nine bills. not good news but at least i knew what to expect. well, when i got the call that it was a leaking water pump and it would cost $750, i was prepared. it's a nice chunk of change but this forum prepared me for it...for what it's worth. well, i got her back and she's running great! thanks forum and thanks ********************************!

This always puzzles me. I also know of Boxsters with 150K+ miles with their original water pumps still working, so wondering why some fail so early. Mine is an 01 as well, with 50K miles, and so far the pump's still good. Knock on wood.

Paul · 08-11-2007, 06:13 AM

I wonder if they fail more often in hot climates.

63,000 on my 01, no leaks yet.....

Boxtaboy · 08-11-2007, 06:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul

I wonder if they fail more often in hot climates.

63,000 on my 01, no leaks yet.....

I don't know about that... of the three I know of that are over 150K w/ original water pumps, one is in Florida, one is in Southern California, and the third in Boston, so I don't think weather has anything to do with it. Luck of the draw I guess.

Paul · 08-11-2007, 06:48 AM

I wonder if they last longer if the owner drives the car often.

wingboat · 08-11-2007, 07:15 AM

Mine failed at 27K. I was driving it home to Boston after buying it in Atlanta. It had been registered in Miami.

The little gas station in Jonestown, NC doubled their labor rate, but still kept the repair around $500. By the way, the "overnight" UPS package from the dealer in Charlotte, NC arrived at 7PM on day 2..

Worked fine ever since, but I'm paying close attention for any sickeningly sweet smell..

JCL12 · 08-11-2007, 07:19 AM

Bought my car with 36K miles and the dealer told me (I did not suspect a lie, but i am no expert) the older water pump was near failure and therefore just replaced

silverboxter · 08-11-2007, 08:42 AM

funny thing...i never noticed any leaks. the water pump just failed! it failed big time! water was just gushing out...not embellishing. at first, i thought it was a ruptured hose.

she was a daily driver (70 mile round trip) up until 2 months ago. that's when we got the wifey's 02 S w/tip. that's when my box went from being driven 5 days/week to 1 day/week.

maybe she got jealous and wanted more attention ; ) well, i can take a hint. i haven't driven the wife's since.

Tool Pants · 08-11-2007, 09:26 AM

A water pump on any car is going to fail when it is it's time.

One of the local owners had his replaced 2 weeks ago. I asked him to save me the old one so I could take it apart. When I got it it was easy to see the bearings failed. I wanted to take the pump apart but there is no way I could get the pulley off.

Yesterday I was at the local dealer talking to the mechanics I know. One of them was working on a 2000 Boxster. On his bench was a broken water pump that he had just replaced. The pulley was off the pump. I asked him how he got the pulley off because I was not able to.

Oops. The water pump shaft for the pulley had snapped. That is one stout shaft. Never see that happen. Took a picture of the pulley.

Trivia. 2 of the mechanics said a few years ago Porsche started using a pump with a slightly smaller pulley. This makes the water pump spin faster.

kabel · 08-16-2007, 05:51 AM

Over the last several weeks I have noticed an intensifying grinding sound, like bad bearings, so I dropped by my mechanic this morning. No visible leaks, but she is going in later today for what will probably be a Water Pump replacement. It's a 99 with 92k on the OD. From what little service information information I found prior to me owing the car indicates the WP is original.

Just glad it did not fail while I was on vacation last week.

EHGVETTE · 08-16-2007, 09:11 AM

I am new to porsches, but my experience with water pumps is change the coolant often every 1 or 2 years at the most and they last,unless they are poorly manufactured.

just my .02 cents.

Do boxster use green or red coolant??

thanks

williamsF1 · 08-16-2007, 09:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kabel

Over the last several weeks I have noticed an intensifying grinding sound, like bad bearings, so I dropped by my mechanic this morning. No visible leaks, but she is going in later today for what will probably be a Water Pump replacement. It's a 99 with 92k on the OD. From what little service information information I found prior to me owing the car indicates the WP is original.

Just glad it did not fail while I was on vacation last week.

I have noticed a bad bearing / brake whine sound as well, but most of the time it is not there - when I try to diagnose it I cannot replicate the sound, its suddenly there. However I have power-steering problems. If I drive for 1-2 hours sometimes the steering wheel feels like there is sand in the mechanism but the power steering is still doing its job, it's not hard to turn the wheel. I had the car checked for servo-fluid and they said all was just fine and they asked me to bring the car in for a check next time the sand-problem reappeared so they could diagnose it.

Could my worn servo-pump be the cause of this bad bearing sound problem like a water pump can make this sound ? Its very hard to tell where the sound comes from and it is most noticeably when the roof down.

Its only a month since I changed my water-pump, when it 'broke' I had a pretty loud rotating sound almost like a old coffee maker and had it replaced pretty soon after I noticed it.

BTW. Any guesses if a worn servo could cause a rattle sound ? I have one that goes away when the car is warmed up pretty well. Its very noticeable between 1-3 gear changes but a mechanic that checked it said it wasn't transmission but more likely heat shields - They gave me a price for the heat shields (cheap), but I have no clue how much work is involved with replacing the heat-shields - hourly rates are very high!