Life expectancy of factory water pump?

My '91 is making a rattling noise and I think it is the water pump. I is not overheating but there is a slight hole in the gasket. Aren't there ball bearings in this pump? Where is the best place to get a replacement besides the stealership?

First off I have cone to the conclusion to buy only NEW waterpumps, not rebuilt. Usually the rebuilt water pump suffered some trama, the casting got hot, and it may work right even if rebuilt.

I have heard of guys buying rebuilt pumps which were welded and the weld was not ground down on the mating surface.

I think NAPA and the Dealer sell new pumps. If i recall alldatadiy.com said they were like $56 for the dealer part, check your local dealer.

I installed an aftermarket high volume HESCO waterpump. I heard good things about them on here. They are on sale right now for $149. The HESCO pump has a 8 vane impeller machined out of aluminum instead of the 5 blade stamped steel one used on the factory pump.

Here the link HESCO describes the impeller differences: http://www.hescosc.com/HFW.html

Here the link to order the pump: http://www.hescosc.com/cgi-bin/ez-catalog/cat_display.cgi?3X364946#p

I have had mine one for 18 months and so far no problems. My factory pump had 135K when I changed it.

If you change the pump then I'd also recommend you change:

* idler bearing next to the AC compressor, I am sure it will be rough and it like a $10-$15 part.
* The drive belt, figure around $30 for a good one
* If the bearing for the mechanical fan is rough then change it. This will require you to buy a new AC mount bracket at the dealer. You can't buy the bearing seperately - $75 part 2 years ago.
* If the Fan clutch is approaching 5 years old or is of unknown age then change it out.

I go with the 30 dolalr autozone pumps withthe lifetime warrany. 20k and its fine so far. My water pump started making squeaky sounds when it started to go out. Also, there is a weep hole at the bottom of the pump housing that lets you know when thinkgs are going south.

My factory water pump lasted 8 years (135,000 miles). When they go bad they typically tell you by dripping out coolant (slowly, when the engine is hot and running). Mine started doing this, I thought it was a bad hose, went to replace the hose and it was coming from the water pump. Mechanic told me that they are designed to tell you when the die by dripping coolant when the engine is hot and running.

I replaced it with OEM.

If you're not running hot and its not leaking it may not be the water pump.

Hope this helps,

Clay

working in auto parts i definately wouldnt recomend a remanufactured unit, just on expereinces through the store we get warranty defects with labor claims all the time with them, and our company carries cardone which is the leading manufacturer of remanufactured parts(w/p, p/s/p, calipers, boosters, m/c, sterring gears).

if you dont want to go with OEM because of price carter's are great pumps and ive never dealt with airtek but ive heard good things about airtek pumps as well

t bell said:

there is a slight hole in the gasket

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Please clarify about the gasket. They fail by leaking past the shaft seals or by the bearing wearing out.

While were on the topic, I've heard that those super high flow units actually cool LESS than a stocker. The dwell time of the coolant in the block and the radiator has to be long enough for the heat transfer to actaully take place efficently. Sounds reasonable to me... My water pump seems to be holding out fine at 15 years old and 172k. I was going to do a swap to one of those fancy pumps until I heard that theory...

I dont think I have ever chnged a water pump on my Xj's due to it being bad, I changed them because I was in there fixing something else and it was just good insurance, lol. Sorry I cant help you with life expectancy, lots of factors weigh in on that one tho, bearing life, proper coolant mix and flush will have alot to do with rust etc. I do however recommend a new pump if you do it, to quote a good friend of mine " a piece of crap with a lifetime warranty is still a piece of crap". Napa offers a new unit built by GMB that is actually a very nice pump. I know other stores sell them, but I have priced a few and they were the least expensive. Good luck

yeah GMB pretty much owns new water pump market they make them for Napa, Carquest,Carter, and soon Gates will off water pumps built by GMB. Same assembly line different boxes.

I replaced my pump after 12 yrs and 196K from Napa this past week. It was leaking from the seal to the block and after I got it off, I noticed that it had also started leaking from the weep hole.

Flushing can cause it to go bad FAST especially those 15 min ones. They kind of blast the crud out and can take the water pump packing material with them.
Gott a figure if it took years to build up all that stuff removing it in 15 min has to do something not so good. Thats why I prefer the 7 hour flush, a bit gentler on the innards.

7 hour flush? What the heck is that? Are you just supposed to leave the stuff in there for a few days or what?

Yes, you flush out the old coolant, refill with water and the 7 hour flush and drive it for a total of 7 hours. It is a bit more gentle on the cooling system compared to the blast from the 10 min flushes.
I used it the first time in my 2.8L S-10, the tank on that was one you could look down thru and mine looked like the metal work on the titanic with all the build up around the water outlets. Installed the flush the nite before and went from the poconos to syracuse ny, about a 4 hour drive, did a service call and headed home. I was getting a bit nervous when I stopped for dinner and took a peek inside, geeze even the solder was shiny and when I flushed it after getting home I stuck an automotive paint filter on top of the bucket. The flush/coolant was pretty nasty looking and there were alot of small bits that the filter caught. Been sold on it ever since. Did the same with my 87 Trooper II and it did the same thing. It breaks down the buildup. IMO the fast flushes destroy the packing in the water pump. I used to use it, the 15 min flushes, every coolant change and it always seemed I was replacing a pump within 2 to 3 months of doing this.

RichP said:

I stuck an automotive paint filter on top of the bucket. The flush/coolant was pretty nasty looking and there were alot of small bits that the filter caught.

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Where exactly did you put the filter. All you flushed it with was water? Am I correct on that? This seems prettysafe on the cooling system. What about rust?

When I flushed out the cleaner after the 7 hour drive I added a hose to the spigot that the prestone kit comes with that snaps into the radiator filler hole and directed the flow into 2 5 gallon buckets. Mostly I did this out of curiousity so see what came out after the cleaner had done its work, the paint strainers are pretty big. I also got alot of big pieces that could not make it thru the cooling tubes in the radiator, they came out after I pulled all the hoses to replace them with new ones. Pulled the rad out and did a good cleaning of the fins from the back side then flushed the rad while it was leaning against a railroad tie wall which is when the chunks came out.
The whole thing is somewhat futile when you consider that I did not drain the block which was now full of water from the garden hose. Oh well.

So, where exactly is the weep hole? It's on the driver's side correct?

On my '89 the weep hole was almost directly above the lower radiator hose; at first I thought the leak was from the hose or clamp.