dkraige

Replaced my water pump preventively this weekend on my 2001 with 77k miles. To my knowledge the pump was original. It looks flawless, no degradation of the impeller. When I spin the pulley by hand the bearing sounds a little noisy, but it might be my imagination. I'd probably say it was fine to keep using. Just thought I'd share since some folks seem to think these are guaranteed to disintegrate every X miles or Y years and embed impeller parts throughout the cooling system.

Also replaced the thermostat and all idler/tensioner pulleys, all original. The new 997 pulleys are plastic and use aluminum spacers instead of steel, so a few grams saved there. The big 24mm nut on my tensioner was a little rusty so I wanted to tackle all that junk before it gets harder to remove.

PelicanParts.com

Hello - I'm attaching a link to our site's DIY tech articles in case you're going to be doing more work on your 996. The articles are broken down into sections and include step-by-step guides. Please let us know if you have any questions!

Porsche 996 Technical Articles

Volkert

Waterpump on my 996 was still stock when replaced, 19 years old. Perfect, could easily have run another 5 years according to my Indy. 140k kms.

cbracerx

Similar experience replacing a water pump this spring on an '01 986 S with 40k miles. Impeller was perfect, bearing was starting to get a bit stiff but not in need of immediate replacement. Feel better that it is replaced "while I was in there."

996AE

31 known failures and counting. After all the OCD P car crowd replaces all the parts on their cars that have yet to fail with new ones the 32nd known failure will emerge.

Selling parts for these cars is a very big and profitable business!

Just say-in.

cbracerx

I had a water pump failure at 57K miles on my '06 987s - so PM is a good idea to keep from having to do this in a rush.

996AE

Yes. Most go well over 100k miles.

By definition you are a gambler. You bought a 996!

sequel95

CBRacer, can you share what brand water pump you used? Also did you do the low temp thermostat and new alloy housing? Thanks.

cbracerx

I used a Pierburg pump that was a Porsche part (has Porsche part number). I also replaced the thermostat housing and the thermostat, but didn't use the lower temp version (I bought TWO of these but they both were not really the 160 degree part and ran out of time).

rb101

I replaced mine at 100K miles (not sure if it was original). The replacement started leaking around 145K miles.

PCAR996C2

My pump started leaking at 140,000 km's. Replaced it and the expansion tank started leaking...now all good