Waterpump go bye bye

[urban_legend]

I thought I would post a photo of this. Odd thing to me was that there was no leak or squeak or any other warning. Just on a return 30 mile highway trip a pinging or knock on start-up that had not been there before. Like the old bad gas commercials.

Then 15 miles down the road a thump and that was it. Pump shaft broke and the s-belt flew off.

For the record, 92 k miles and no (that I know of) prior work on the cooling system. Original pump and green coolant. S-belt had been recently replaced with a gatorbelt.

[kabel]

I found it interesting how shallow the WP is on this engine.

[Jaxonalden]

Looks typical to me.

[edevlin]

So, after reading the threads about water pump failures, I decided to have mine replaced. My indep shop replace the pump, pulleys and thermostat. My base boxster has 89K and this was the original water pump. When we got it off and took a look at it it looked fine. There was a very little play in the shaft, but no other visible wear or break down of parts. Interesting,

Ed

[Frodo]

So Ed, outta curiosity---how much did that run you?

[edevlin]

OEM water pump 280.00
gasket 6.00
Belt idle , lower 92.00
belt idle roller, upper, 77.00
Belt tensioner 60.00
1 gallon porsche antifreeze 37.00
3 hours labor 290.00
belt replacement 16.00


Looks like about 900.00 bucks to me. I could have saved on the labor and done it myself, but it looked like a reasonable pain in the butt when they did it. Its great to put money into these high mileage Boxsters while we wait for them to blow up .

When I was in the shop there was a 99' boxster there with blown engine, they said they thought it was IMS failure. When the owner tried to turn it over, they said it sounded like the engine was full of ball-peen hammers. The owner found a replacement used engine and is having it stuck in. The guys in the shop said the older boxsters that are still running are going for very cheap. They said one sold locally for 5k recently.....

Ed

[Jake Raby]

Yep... Seen that a few dozen times...

Thats why changing the water pump at 60K is such a good practice..

Ensure that ALL the old pieces are removed from the cooling system/ engine.. One piece of the old impeller can block a passage inside a head/ cylinder and create a hot spot or air pocket that can lead to big issues.. I just repaired a cracked head due to this very occurrence...

And pull the heat exchanger as it is a collection point for this debris as well as the thermostat housing after the engine is back up and running and has circulated the coolant/ debris for a few cycles.

I find lots of engines with impeller pieces inside the heat exchanger.

[Lil bastard]

It's not unheard of to lose an ancillary bearing (waterpump, alternator, PS pump, AC compressor, idler pulley) after swapping the drive belt. The tension on a new belt is usually much higher than the 'relaxed' old belt.

We have heard some reports of the Gatorback belt being a tighter fit than oem, and even a couple mm shorter can result in a huge difference in the belt tension. That's why I prefer to go oem, even if it's a few bucks more.

[ddb]

Originally Posted by Lil bastard

It's not unheard of to lose an ancillary bearing (waterpump, alternator, PS pump, AC compressor, idler pulley) after swapping the drive belt.

Ain't that the truth! I recently replaced my water pump (81,000 miles). It had started leaking but I changed it prior to it grenading fortunately. I also replaced the coolant, added a 160 degree LN thermostat as well as a new serpentine belt. While the belt was off I inspected the pulleys and found one of the two idler pulleys a little loose. So I replaced both idler pulleys and the tensioner pulley. When I put it all back together and started it I heard a new, abnormal sound. Turns out it is my alternator pulley. I'm about to replace it in a few minutes and will detail the procedure in a new thread for future reference.

BTW, I saved a small fortune getting my parts from Sunset and doing the work myself.


ddb

[edevlin]

"BTW, I saved a small fortune getting my parts from Sunset and doing the work myself."

And I am very jealous.....

Ed

[edevlin]

In hindsight, I think should have tackled the waterpump replacement job myself and saved $'s. I dont know, something about mucking around with the cooling system seemed a little intimidating. But I will try to make up for it this weekend as my car will turn 90K after we go to town tonight to an event where we do 108 sun salutations and dance (a yoga thing). So I will be crawling around under and over the Boxster changing plugs, tubes, coilpacks, fuel filter, and AOS which are sitting in my garage freshly delivered from Sunset Porsche.

The ignition switch, IMS bearing and wheel bearings seem to be the only things left to do as preventitive maintenance. I can do the switch myself on another project weekend, I will listen for wheel bearings (original) and I am not sure what to do about my IMS.

My clutch is still in good shape, but if I can come up with a couple of grand in the next year out of the family budget (not an easy task) I think I will have a spec clutch put in and have the IMS replaced. I am hoping for long miles out of this car....


Ed

We've seen several cars recently that needed new pulleys.