As the title says, I changed my water pump today - not because it failed, it was working fine. Not out of paranoia, no signs of issues. Not because there was looseness, grinding, or other noises.

In fact, my dealer said that there was minor crusting around the shaft, but nothing serious and I could probably have left it on the car longer.

I changed it because it's 15 years old and had minor crusting AND I had a water pump sitting on my bench for over 4 years from when I previous mechanic tried scamming/scaring/shaming me and trying to get me to change it when it didn't need changing (I later bought one because I figured I would need one at some point and it's better to buy one cheaply over the internet, than pay full price when something has gone wrong).

Anyways, short story long, my 15 year old water pump that some would believe was an impending disaster waiting to happen didn't have any major leaks and didn't have any broken fins waiting to find their way into my engine and cause it to instantaneously turn it into a big, useless, metal brick.

Boringly it was working fine and showing no signs of being an issue any time soon. I know that will really distress some people.

I figure we need more feel good stories sometimes.

 

shocker! (& god bless u....)

 

i changed mine out last year for the exact same reason as you and it was fine, no issues whatsoever.

 

Yup, anything issue that receives way too much attention than it deserves.

 

What is the mileage?

 

I think you should have a doctor check out that crusting around the shaft.

My water pump worked perfectly fine until the day it didn't, so good job replacing it preemptively.

No matter how well maintained a machine is, parts wear out over time. Thankfully, the 996 parts that need replacement are now fairly well known, and doing the work as preventive maintenance insulates us from the spike at the end of the curve (and expensive tow bills).

 

I changed out mine when it was 10yrs/55k miles. The blades are all fine but the shaft felt scratchy and the bearing had some noise when being spun by hand. I did the low-t thermo and complete coolant drain the same time and the pump was ~$250. I think it's cheap insurance for me.

 

78K - actually very young in the scheme of water pump lifetimes. I would expect most water pumps to last well in excess of 100K

 

i changed my serpentine belt along with the water pump.

 

Mine was fine until I ran the car up to 150MPH. I leaked coolant all the way home from the desert. Close to redline in 5th gear was more than the water pump bearing wanted to deal with.

 

Nice job. I have a water pump sitting on my work bench…do you want to come over and do mine now that you are a pro?

 

I'm sure my dealer would be happy to do the work for $500.

 

Thanks, I'm sure that would be a waste of money. I'll just sit tight until the old one has "crust," "noisy bearings," and exploding plastic parts.

 

Your Porsche has served you well Wellardmac and your ahead of me on miles.(I'm just at 68k miles for MY99)

 

Yup, it has been an awesome car. I would never envisage keeping a car this long, but I really have no reason to change it considering how reliable it has been. At my current use level I'm still good for 5 years before I hit 100K, so we'll see if I still have it then, but right now I see no reason for change.

It's not often that you can count on 1 hand the number of items (beyond tires and brakes) that have needed changing due to failure after almost 15 years.