Expected Life Of Water Pump

[sproutdreamer]

Hi

I wondered whether to replace the water pump at my convenience rather than wait for it to fail in the middle of nowhere! Car is a 1-8 2003, 2000-2003 series hatchback with 67K miles. What is the expected life of these pumps-are they a known problem area?

thanks

[t-spiritpete]

Hello,

whilst I'm 100% in favour of preventative maintenance I wouldn't worry too much about your water pump, it will normally start weeping before a big leak starts so just do your weekly water, oil, brake fluid and other visual checks and you will be fine, any small loss of water and you will have ample time to check if it's the water pump. ;)

Regards Pete.

[Waterford26]

does anybody know why is my avensis loosing the coolant until its on min mark? ..then it stops there and stays on 'min' mark .. doesnt go below that minimum level. One week after filling the coolant tank to max it goes back on minimum and stays there.. why is that so?? Seems like my car doesnt need more coolant than minimum level :D

[Devon Aygo]

does anybody know why is my avensis loosing the coolant until its on min mark? ..then it stops there and stays on 'min' mark .. doesnt go below that minimum level. One week after filling the coolant tank to max it goes back on minimum and stays there.. why is that so?? Seems like my car doesnt need more coolant than minimum level :D

You might have two sets of min/max lines one for cold coolant level and one for hot coolant level, it is possible you are filling the reservoir to the hot max line when cold and the excess coolant is blowing out when the engine gets warmer.

Devon

[Waterford26]

yeah..looks like that.. should I worried about?

[sproutdreamer]

My real concern is that if the pump bearing starts to wear that this would cause the ancillary drive belt to run out of true, come off and cause damge-or does this just not happen?

[cooper12000]

i would of thought u would of got noise and signs of wear on the belt long b4 "it came off" seems to me that 99% or manufactures recomend replacing the water pump with the timing belt. of course this is just good practise and in some cases too costly not too

coop

[Parts-King]

My real concern is that if the pump bearing starts to wear that this would cause the ancillary drive belt to run out of true, come off and cause damge-or does this just not happen?

Stop panicking, I bet you never fly

You rarely see a water pump just "fail" You would normally hear the bearing make a noise or it would start to lose a small amount of coolant first. Stop worrying, do your weekly oil, water etc checks and go about your daily business, you are worrying about something that is very unlikely to happen ;)

Kingo

[t-spiritpete]

My real concern is that if the pump bearing starts to wear that this would cause the ancillary drive belt to run out of true, come off and cause damge-or does this just not happen?

Stop panicking, I bet you never fly

You rarely see a water pump just "fail" You would normally hear the bearing make a noise or it would start to lose a small amount of coolant first. Stop worrying, do your weekly oil, water etc checks and go about your daily business, you are worrying about something that is very unlikely to happen ;)

Kingo

I'm sure that's what I said ...copyright infringement ! Maybe just a case of great minds think alike Kingo. ;)

Pete.

[sproutdreamer]

Stop panicking, I bet you never fly

You rarely see a water pump just "fail" You would normally hear the bearing make a noise or it would start to lose a small amount of coolant first. Stop worrying, do your weekly oil, water etc checks and go about your daily business, you are worrying about something that is very unlikely to happen ;)

Kingo

Pretty patronising Kingo-not worthy of this good forum.

I am not risk averse and I do not woory about things excessively but I am averse to having to bother repairing damage caused by an ancillary belt coming off and causing damge that could be avoided. Having driven about 900K miles over 54 years and in that time replaced 10-12 water pumps mostly on cars with 70-90K mile,s two of those were instant failures. One of these was where the cam belt also drove the water pump and the cam belt failed as a consequence of the water pump bearing failure and trashed the engine top end. The Avensis water pump is not driven like that but I can still imagine the serpantine belt causing mayhem if the bearing collapsed and the belt came off with the engine going at speed.

So my experience is that water pumps last 70-100K on cars and mostly do not cause a problem BUT damage can be caused depending on the design of the pumps and how it is driven.

Kingo - As this is a forum with some real experts I was looking for some owneras comments about the life of Avensis water pumps as experienced by forumites and feedback about possible damage caused by the belt if it comes off. By the look of it these pumps have a big life as these has not been any feedback of peeps with experience.

Have you great experience of water pumps to be so flippant?

[Parts-King]

Well my comments were not meant to be patronising, hence the use of an emocion at the end of the comment about flying, it was my attempt at saying you are being overly cautious, I'm sorry you have seen the need to get ones knickers twisted, sorry

Whilst I'm not a specific Avensis driver, I think I do have specific water pump experience and knowledge in the parts area. I have been in the motor trade 36 years, and Toyota specific since 1977, so I have seen one or two water pumps pass through the system. Toyota water pumps in the early days were bomb proof (pre 90's) it was rare to sell one. These days, you get a lot of pumps that LOOK like they are leaking but they often just have a tiny weep. This is due to the design of the seal which expands and contracts and you get a small amount of coolant that stains the pump. Water pumps that just "let go" and fail completely is still rare, if it did happen on your car, yes it would be messy, but it would be with any modern car.

So the facts are as I first suggested, total failure is rare, but I suppose if you have had 10-12 failures in the past, the best course of action would be to replace the pump as a precaution, as this is obviously always going to be in the back of your mind

Kingo

[cooper12000]

although my opinion isnt worth much as i have no formal training i would assume that it would be fairly simple to check for signs of bearing wear whilst checking the condition of the aux belt. i guess im used to engines that the water pump is driven by the cambelt and one changes the water pump with the cambelt atabout 60k as a matter of course so not to waste time doing the cambelt twice.

coop

[Parts-King]

I'm sure that's what I said ...copyright infringement

Pete.

Shurrup :D: :D:

[sproutdreamer]

Kingo

Knickers now untwisted -thanks for your post.

[Parts-King]

[sproutdreamer]

Thats brilliant-never seen that before!

[t-spiritpete]

Then .... :group-cuddles: .... love it .

Pete.

[Roker]

My only experience with water pump failure was on a Mitsubishi, possibly the same manufacturer. It went to 160,000 mile before the impellor came off the shaft, never any water leaks, the first sign was overheating.

[+robster+]

op for your piece of mind ive worked for toyota and changed umpteen water pumps. never seen one lose a shaft or pulley.

just check your pulley is tight and grab it and shake vigorously to see if there is any signs of bearing wear. if there is then change it But it will start rattling about and loosing coolant well before it lets go completely.

forget about water pump failure , an aux belt can break and get pulled through the timing cover through the crank pulley very easily as common on pug 1.9 d turbos that the tensioner would fail etc so dont fret about a water pump

[jumbojake]

I've just changed my timing belt (1CD-FTV engine) ... 120k change..... I also thought about the water-pump, but didn't bother based on advise from dealer. I had a good look and shaken when the aux belt was off and it looked perfect to me...

I think the trouble is, people like Vauxhall make them out of chocolate, so they need changing every week.... and garages often assume all other manufacturers are the same (my wife's Zafira needed a new pump (leaking) after about 40k .. and nobody seemed surprised !!)

[+robster+]

even dealers get deliveries of parts from places like dingbro, some of it not the best quality pattern parts. but they will charge you oe prices

[cooper12000]

if the waterpump is driven off the cambelt most garages change the water pump and tentioner at the same time so they dont have to repeate the work if either fails b4 the cambelt is due to be changed again.

coop

[dervdave]

My 2.0d Verso has just had its first mot and third service at only 8k miles but had to have its waterpump changed under warranty after dealer found a slight leak