I have a '92 SE with 116K miles and the original water pump.

1) I'm curious what other people's experience has been regarding the life expectancy of this component.

The Texas climate tends to be hard on cooling system components so I'm getting a little nervous and thinking about changing it before it fails -- despite my deferred maintenance repair philosophy. I recently replaced the belts and checked the feel of the pump bearings by hand, they feel tight with no noticeable shaft play.

2) Does this job tend to be an easy one or are there issues such as accessibility that complicates matters?

Thanks,
--SAM

 

not sure about how long it lasts, but several peeps have had 2 change it...and on the ve it is the biggest pain is the ***...

 

Mine went at about 70k . If your search the org you'll find a lot of different discussions on the steps that are required. detaching the water pump from the engine is the easy part, the hard part is getting it out of the engine bay

 

Before I posted these questions I did a few water pump searches expecting to find that this topic had been covered in painful detail. Perhaps I'm not clever enough to find these threads or maybe they are so old, they are no longer available on-line?

 

just went out at 103K on my 93SE. U have to baisclly do everything you'd do to replace the timing belt to get it out of there. sux **** cuse it's expensive and takes time

unless you're going in there for something else, wait. when it fails just be ready to get it done right away

 

I'm going with the clever thing

http://forums.maxima.org/search.php?...der=descending

Just kidding. You have to be inventive using the search to nail down the posts.

 

Thanks Jeff92se--

I guess I need to be more clever AND persistant next time.

I suspect water pump longevity is also partially related to belt tension, i.e. a loose, worn belt may result in longer bearing life versus a new, tight belt...I'm wandering a bit now.

--SAM

 

mine went at 93k 2 weeks ago. It's a PITA to get out and a PITA to get in.
I had to jack up the engine and carefully pull away an A/C line to get it back in.

 

Mine went out last year at 125k on my VE auto.

10 yrs in Dallas heat. It was, however, the biggest pain to replace.

It can also be messy...trying to get the new one in there with a fresh bead of silicone on it isnt fun. lol

 

Mine went at about 90K. It was not that hard to get out the bottom - just takes a couple of turns. Practice putting it back in before you apply the silicone. I did it about 10 times, and still put my thumb in the stuff. It also helps to have a helper up top to guide it up and onto the two water pipe studs. I've heard that ABS makes it more difficult, but I don't know.

 

To begin with, welcome
A few months ago when I rebuild my VTC's I also removed my cyl heads for various reasons not related to the H20 pump. But while I had the heads off I decided to R&R the H20 pump, and to my surprise the pump was showing signs of wear. The pump impeller shaft was digging into the pump housing, but it wasn't bad enough to cause any type of noise. When I check for bearing play it was within nominal. Anyway, went to the dealer pick up a pump for about $100 (luckily they had a few in stock) Besides the normal wear and tear, there was a big difference between the new and old pump. So to answer your question, who knows how long it would last but it can fail without any warning signs or noise. I also had about 112K on mine when I replaced it.