I have 2001 infiniti i30t with 163k miles very reliable should I be doing the water pump out of caution being I'm getting up there in milage please thanks

 

No I would not worry about it. It will last a long time, and when it does start to weep a little you will have plenty of time to replace it.
They rarely ever just fail totally.

 

Lol very much like my mechanic says if it's not broke don't fix it .. I guess I do have bigger fish to fry when it comes to this car ust was wondering if it should be on my radar of upcoming jobs that money could be better put to fixing that little rust in my wheel well

 

I agree. Don’t mess with it if it is not broken. Water pumps are challenging to replace. I did replace mine when I had the timing chain cover off at 170,000 miles. The water pump
was still in great shape when I removed it from the engine block.

 

I drain and refill my radiator once a year. antifreeze contains a lubricant for the water pump shaft bearings and when the coolant gets old and that lubricant goes bad bearing failure occurs. once that happens the pump shaft seal starts to have coolant leak past it which causes the water pump to " weeps " as they say. but on our engines it weeps into the oil. the pump itself has 2 thick O-rings that seals it really good. my 02 is at 310,000 miles and so far the the only cooling issues i have had to deal with is fan motors going bad and i installed an OEM thermostat when I first got the car, just to be safe....