I am going to be replacing the timing belt on my '92 Max, and I'm considering replacing the water pump at the same time, as preventive maintenance, since I'll be in there anyway. The car has 160000kms. (100000 miles) on it. Are the water pumps on the Maximas durable enough for me not to worry about it? There is no problem with it now, but I'd hate to have to basically do the same job again if the pump lets go in another 20000km. What about the tensioner? I'm considering replacing that too, unless it's not really necessary.
Any comments would be appreciated.

 

do the wp now..while you do the t-belt.
tensioner is replaced (i believe) every other t-belt change...but do it anyway just to make sure.

 

I would replace the pump. The labor to replace the water pump can be expensive. Luckily I got the labor for free at my local dealer since they took the upper radiator hose loose to rebuild my VTC sproket (at 75k). Then, 3 days later the hose worked loose and made a mess under the hood. This caused the water pump to fail. At first they didn't believe me at the dealer but I convinced them that they were liable (could have been an honest mechanic).

I did have to pay for the part though, $60. An effective compromise none the less but the labor for this is I think 2.5 to 3 hours. At $70 / hr that adds up!!

If you're a DIY person and you're in there, I would recommend it..

 

only difference is that there's no VTC in a VG motor..but there's also no timing belt in a VE motor. so your water pump (assuming VE)is different than his motor (assuming VG). you can't get the t-belt wet (with coolant) and expect it to last it's expected life...premature belt breaking = bye bye motor.

 

yeah do it. my mechanic didn't when he did my belts and I had to go back and bascially redo all the work to fix the leaking pump. Make sure to do the thermostat at the same time - that's a common item to replace with the WP.

 

water pump cost me 24 dollars. if i had someone put it in for me, 250 dollars. took me about 4 hours to do and i have a write up now over on www.nissanx.com

http://www.nissanx.com/f0rums/thread...d=37&styleid=2

 

I have a '94 SE with 106k miles, and the waterpump failed about a month ago. However, I only purchased the car a few months ago, and after buying it I noticed that the coolant was little more than rusty water (I should have checked it before I bought it, but I got excited when I found a clean, dark green '94 SE 5-spd). After flushing the cooling system thoroughly, the waterpump began to leak and I was forced to replace it. The pump failed because it was held together mostly by rust, and changing the old rusty coolant flushed out all the corrosion that was preventing it from leaking. Otherwise, I'm sure it wouldn't have been a problem. So, if you've maintained your cooling system properly you may be okay, otherwise I'd suggest changing the waterpump.