shredded drive belt - replace water pump or not
 

While driving on the street, the drive belt of my 1997 Boxster (with 90k+ miles) snapped, accompanied by an audible noise and a subsequent loss of power steering. Promptly suspecting the belt as the culprit, I stopped the car and had it towed home. Upon closer inspection, it was evident that the belt had been shredded. Notably, all accessory rollers were functioning smoothly without any noticeable play, and the water pump pulley turned seamlessly. There were no signs of oil or coolant leaks.

I have already placed an order for a new belt. My primary concern is whether the water pump could be the cause of the issue. Given the absence of leaks and the smooth operation of the water pump pulley, Is it fair to assume that the water pump is in good condition?. Would it be advisable to start by replacing the belt and assessing the situation from there?

for ref: water pump was last replaced in 2016 about 20k miles ago.
Thank all

I would install the new belt and then reassess.

I would do a little more research into why the old belt failed, the following thread was posted about a month ago, is anything touching the belt?
https://rennlist.com/forums/boxster-and-boxster-s-986-forum/1371556-what-am-i-looking-at-serpentine-belt-shredded.html

Yes…
 

Water pumps “time out” every four years.

Also, I would replace all of the idler pulleys.

I’ve seen lots of them fail.

I appreciate everyone's feedback. I decided to replace several components that I thought might be problematic. These include the belt, rollers (3x), new bolts, water pump, and thermostat. I'll provide an update if any issues arise again, though I hope they .

Yeah, water pumps are funny things. Jake Raby, who used to post here frequently and has forgotten more about 986s than I'll ever hope to know, used to recommend a new WP every 3 years. That always seemed excessive to me

What I assume was my first one (I bought the car, an '01, in 2006, with 19k miles) went bad on me in 2011. So it was like 10 years old (at 58k miles). I just got around to replacing that one, proactively, in 2022 (109k miles) and it looked fine, spun smoothly, etc. But I was doing other cooling system work anyway and figured it only made sense to R/R the pump.

But the "funny things" part is that I guess sometimes they do fail within a much shorter time period—and it can be kind of a big deal when they abruptly crash and burn on you. So I would, with whatever authority and confidence I can muster :p recommend replacing them somewhere between every 3 and 10 years...FWIW.

I have, on both occasions, used the genuine Porsche product and personally think that's the way to go.