Space_114 V

Doing the T-stat and water pump is a must on a car with no documentation that has never been done . Water pumps are one of those things as they can go the life of the engine or fail prematurely. Replacing it regardless is a better option than having one fail when you are on the road and paying to have your car flat bedded to a shop for repair and then pay full pop $$ for a replacement.

spessx

Well, I’m already paying full pop and my insurance covers me for towing. Either way, I want to be able to trust the car not to break down.

sandwedge

Thankfully, I don't drive on roads or places where I can't get out of the way if all of a sudden I start to see smoke in the rear view mirror and the coolant temp. rising. Pretty obvious what's going on with that scenario which describes what happened with my -09 failure. And you don't have much time before the coolant temp rises to above healthy levels so you need to shut down in short order.

Lucky for me I was just approaching an exit to a gas station with traffic moving. But imagine the same scenario being in the center lane in bumper to bumper, stop and go traffic with just three lanes. No way I can think of to get out of the way. You have to shut the engine down, blocking the center lane and then figure out a way to get a wrecker into that mess. Never mind the shouting, screaming and shaking fists as others pass you by

yelcab

My wife drives the 997.1 CS. Maintenance is done such that nothing fails while she is driving it. Two reasons: 1) safety on the road. 2) she does not know to stop when the car is sending up its signals like engine light, or overheating.

That car is now on its 3rd water pump, 3rd full set of pulleys, and 3rd AOS. All factory parts.

BHMav8r

I was planning on DIY my water pump at 60k, but the idler pulleys failed just prior to that. Think I had them do the WP while they had it. Which failed about 15k miles after that, just out of their warranty. ARGH!

jchapura

Which brand of water pump did you/they use? Any thoughts about why it might have failed so early in its life?

Busta Rib

Replace your water pump and ancillary bits now. I bought my GTS with 63K miles and drove it over 500 miles back home. Got a PPI and there were no telltale signs of water pump failure other than mileage but by the time I got home, I had a coolant leak and there were white/pink specks on the undercarriage of my engine from the coolant. I just made it back before potential failure. It's relatively cheap insurance to get it done and as sandwedge states, this is one of the potential failures that will leave you stranded.

BHMav8r

I dont know what brand they used. There was no recourse since it was out of warranty.

My indy shop is very good and I dont think they would install non quality or problematic parts. Ive been using them for decades.

So I let it go. Prolly look into it more if it happens again.

Cheers.

TerrestrialFlyte

Do water pump and LTT preventatively. I did mine last year with some hoses and added the center radiator. Trying to keep it cool as possible.

Sporty

Did it make a big difference? Thinking of doing the same in the next year. My 2005 C2 original WP and thermostat (51k miles) runs at 215 -230 on hot days (80-90 degrees) doing sustained highway driving with some high rev bursts. My feeling is it should run a bit cooler. Note I have the Zunnsport grilles in place and the rads provably need to have a good bumper removal, etc cleaning, although they don't look bad from what I see of the AC Condensers..

TerrestrialFlyte

I cleaned everything out when I took the bumper off for the center radiator. I honestly don’t remember what my temps would look like before compared to now on normal driving. I had planned that maintenance/modification as soon as I got the car, so it was going to happen no matter what. I know I could get it up running around Lime Creek Road and it seems like it doesn’t get as warm and cools down faster, but that could be a difference in time of year. So, I can’t provide a good data point. I feel better knowing it’s running as cool as possible. Replacing the outer two radiator probably would’ve been good too, but I didn’t go that far. Yet.

Space_114 V

Water pumps are a roll of the dice some go forever some die prematurely ... on average most can easily go 100k . Always better to know that you have had one replaced every 60k or so ... The issue with our pumps are the impellers should be plastic and plastic tends to get brittle with countless hot / cold cycles so the pump may seem fine from the outside and without symptoms and the plastic impeller may be going south.
I have had good luck with Laso water pumps ..(just watch for counterfeit ones) and Pierburg both are OEM pumps.

Petza914

Actually the problem with our pumps is the bearing (great, another less than stellar bearing in the 997.1 cars) as that's where the leaks come from when the impeller shaft deflects.due to bearing wear and also what allows the plastic impeller to get damaged due to the angle of the shaft. If the impeller shaft.bearings didn't wear out and allow the angle defection there wouldn't be risk of running a metal impeller.

TerrestrialFlyte

Don’t let the peanut gallery on BaT get a hold of that too!!

Petza914

Nothing really to get a hold of. Doesn't destroy an engine and lasts 50k-60k miles. I'm on the 5th water pump on my 2001 GMC pickup at 230k miles so that isn't much better LOL