kmascotto

Just venting...I noticed i was losing water at a progressively faster rate. I started to see a drip at the front of the engine, just at the driver side of the crank pulley. I replaced the pump about 3 years ago and have driven the car about 20k kms (12.5k miles) I wanted to be certain I knew where the water was coming from so I pressurized the system after removing the covers so I could see better. Sure enough the water was coming out the weep hole...so here i go again.

polecat702

Buy one of Ed's Guardian pumps, it's better than stock, and forget about it.

FWIW, the pump Bertrand had in his S4, was one of the early pumps where Ed used a Laso core. He had problems, and only uses Porsche cores now.

Adamant1971

I just had the same failure from a 3 year 25k km's laso pump.

Give me a ring when you have a chance.

ROG100

Kent - send it back and I will sort it for you - Roger

kmascotto

Thank you Roger, I appreciate your offer.

FredR

Kent,

Would you kindly expand on what you mean by the term "weep hole".

As Roger has been kind enough to offer to sort out the problem for you I think I would give it a chance at least. The Geba has the metal impeller and personally I do not like that given the potential consequences of failure- your call of course.remember Porsche originally used metal impellers and changed to plastic - for good reason I suspect.

I sure hope your failure and that of Adam are statistical blips. Given the price of these things yet alone the DIY effort to replace them, I would hope we can get at least 10 years or 100k km out of these things.

Best wishes for a swift recovery.

Rgds

Fred

worf928

This--^

I had a long talk with Ed at Tass's.

kmascotto

Hi Fred, the water pump has a hole behind the pulley that allows water to escape if the pump's seal starts to leak. The idea is, it stops the pulleys bearing from being submerged in coolant...which would destroy the bearing...and you know what comes next.

Adam and I bought our pumps around the same time...

Adamant1971

It's also worth noting that our cars are in storage for 6 months of the year. Typically I store and forget, but this winter I may decide to run the car at least once per month to circulate fluids. But the trick is getting it up to full temp without driving on the salty roads. And for the last two years my car has been in a cold garage, this year it's back to my house with a warm garage.

Looking back I think my coolant was escaping last year as well, but accelerated this year. This year after SITM I had to add about .5l of coolant. And then it just failed to the point of a significant puddle on my driveway just from moving the car around.

But I'm glad it leaked as it did, or I would still be driving around with a time bomb. LOL

kmascotto

Adam, I doubt letting a car sit for a few months over the winter should or would be a reason why a seal would let go. When I got my car it had been sitting for 4 years in a unheated garage the pump had 30k kms on it...no leaks...but I changed it...to be safe.

Adamant1971

Sure it could, if the seal material is less resistant to temperature swings, it could very well give out early due to cold storage and lack of use. Remember every pump is different and materials change so comparing an old pump to a new pump is just not an accurate comparison. Either way I'm a firm believer that they just are not making things like they used to. I have taken off many pumps that were 20+ years old and functioned just fine. I don't think any of us will get that kinda life out of any new pump.

Adk46

I was wondering about the fuss over driving on summer tires below 40°F, and even storing summer tires outside during the winter, so I did a little research on rubber last fall. Afterwards, I moved my new summer tires from the shed into a warm basement. It's true: some forms of rubber will change permanently if allowed to get too cold.

Obviously, automotive seals should not be made of that sort of rubber, but it's not hard to imagine someone in design, manufacturing or sourcing making a mistake. Someone who lives in SoCal, perhaps. Our canaries in the Great White North are chirping.

kmascotto

Adam and I are on the 44th Parallel...equal to the Southern part of South Dakota
Its not really that cold here...and if you hear anybody say otherwise...they are whiners

FredR

Kent,

Seals on the a/c system are particularly vulnerable to failure if the compressor is not used - the oil on the seal face can dry out and when the machine starts the lipseal tears- running the machine for a matter of seconds during winter time- say once a month - is sufficent to protect the seal face.

Now, whether or not such a thing can happen in your neck of the woods to the water pump seal who knows- I doubt it but...? The pump volute is flooded, presumably your coolant is good against freezing at whatever critical temperature the thing sees, so why something similar should happen is not at all clear. Strange that two failures have occurred in the same neck of the woods as it were- coincidence?

I have no recollection of reading about Laso pump failure- not until now at least. Doubtless a few might have gone south given the numbers in service but then I dare say OEM kiitted pumps have as well [my first pump failure when the plastic impeller came off].

The other possibility might be a manufacturing defect but again unlikely I suspect unless there has been a cluster of such failures.

Rgds

Fred

kmascotto

Fred, I'd like to think its just a blip...a couple of pumps...in a thousand or so...