Water pump question

My car has 59,000 miles on it. I inspected the water pump and there are no leaks whatsoever on the engine, thermostat housing or pump. The pump spins freely with no noise or wobble and all of the tensioners spin the same way. Would you replace the pump? I know some of you would say it is a PM matter.

The usual mode of failure is gradual. It seems you are diligent on inspection/maintenance ,so you could safely leave it until one of your frequent inspections reveals wear. If you have a justification for fitting a lower temp thermostat, you may consider a "while I'm in there' approach and replace both the w/p & thermostat. The idler pulleys are worthy of careful inspection- with the belt off. Just spin/wobble/noise test them.

I have a new water pump and thermostat housing with the lower temp stat. I may just do a coolant replacement since it hasn't been done in a while. I do have the Uview 55000, Porsche coolant and distilled water.

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My philosophy is if it ain't broke don't fix it. Absent any signs of trouble the water pump ain't broke. Thus my advice would be to install a new belt and keep driving. I'd lose the low temp T-stat.

No self respecting 996 owner w/50k+ miles has ever said, "Gee, I wish I hadn't replaced that water pump." Nuf said. relinuca

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I am in agreement with Macster and Schnell. No leaks, no foul. I do most of the maintenance on schedule and I did change the IMS bearing at 50k. I'm still on the original brake pads and the car stops just fine. Generally, whenever I haven't driven the car for a while, I do open the engine lid and listen for any strange noises.

My water pump gave out at about 60K kilometers (on a trip to the track about 300 miles from home). I say replace it as PM.

Guys, seriously? I mean water pump is a critical component of the engine; I doubt Porsche designed it for only 60K miles. I say 100K. If you want to do it sooner ok, but at <60K with no obvious issues is overkill.

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Hey Macstar it intrigues me why you say to 'loose the low temp thermostat".. reason please.

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Is there an electric water pump kit available for Porsche 911's? I had one fitted to a Lotus Elise many years ago and it was tremendous... one could vary the water flow depending on the way the car was being driven at the time and also leave the fan/s on auto or manually engage them with a switch - and, I was told that the typical mechanical water pump can use up to 10kw of power... not 100% sure about that, though the cooling system was considerably more efficient no question. Just a thought...! Rgd's Timlin

Lets beat some more dead horses! ALL PM is just that, preventative. Only YOU can decide if the cost of a particular PM is worth it. The most common point made is that certain items are so low cost,that theres no reason not to do them (barbed brass 3/8 fitting to replace cooling hose connection thats a plastic one know to crumble) or that the upfront cost compared to the possible catastrophic cost (IMSB vs engine replacement) makes for an affordable peace of mind. Then there is everything in between. The water pump and low temp T-stat are so easy to do (relatively speaking on a 996/997), and cost reasonable, that for a DIYer to not do it when servicing the cooling system, seems silly (to me). If you have to pay to get it done, then its a whole other level of cost, so it makes a difference. I replaced my WP and Tstat at 50k miles. Not sign of cooling issues, but I was losing coolant very slowly somewhere. No leak on the WP, but when I removed it and compared it to the new one, there was more play, and a rougher feel to the bearing. So I felt good that I did it. The slow loss of coolant turned out to be leaking o-rings in the oil cooler, which I replaced when I did my AOS, also as a PM. I like wrenching, and learning how things go in my cars. I'd prefer to eliminate as many known weak or problematic items on my terms and time table rather than after they fail with possible collateral damage. Thats why I replaced my oil filler tube, and coolant cap as well as installing a spin on full flow filter when I got the car 7 + years ago. I don't consider it wasted money, rather a known baseline for peace of mind. If you turn over cars every 2-3 years, then it makes no sense, but if you keep them till they die of old age, then it's cost effective, like most PMs are.

Yeah I'm always stymied when I see photos of temp gauges sitting dead center 180F and folks saying it never goes above that, even sitting in gridlock on the freeway in 110F weather in Arizona. When my car was brand new, in 1999, sitting in traffic would rise to 110C (230F) in New Jersey. At that point, you're at the mercy of those fans, which are wear items, yet no indicator when they go bad.

Perry great writeup.

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I agree with this however, the OP's logic seems a bit off as he's replaced the IMS yet he's wondering if he should replace the WP. I may be off the mark but I think the OP replaced the IMS as it could cause a very expensive engine replacement. Given the same logic and risk tolerance level, I would think the op would not want to risk getting any broken water pump blades potentially lodged in any of his coolant passages causing hot spots and thus potentially also leading to very expensive repairs down the road. It's true that this doesn't happen often but the same argument can be made of the IMS as well which he already decided to address.

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I did the IMS bearing because it was a part that I could not physically touch and at 50K, I felt it wasn't that big of a financial hit. I had planned to do the work myself on the water pump, but as Macster said, there are no signs of trouble. Not beating a dead horse, I was just asking for opinions. Perryinva does have a few valid points as I do keep cars for a while (this one is ten years). The car has never run hot or had any coolant loss and I always do a check on the car regularly for any leaks or strange noises.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a replace everything just cause it might fail kind of guy. I really just follow a cost vs risk approach. My work horse junker is a '99 Dodge Dakota with 160k miles. Original water pump. Has a very slow drip leak/weep. Like a pint every 3 months. But I know that WP likely never fail catastrophically, and if it does, no real damage. Heck, I blew out a main hose on the truck and drained the system in a minute. Pulled over immediately, got another hose, refilled the system and its like it never happened. I replaced a bunch of hoses on it after that so I wouldn't be inconvenienced and they cost me like $30 for all of them, online, and were easy to replace. But the whole truck is worth less than a clutch and IMSB job cost! For me, too many times, doing some minor PM, I end up finding something else that may be a problem down the road (like the oil cooler o-rings, or oil filler tube), so while I'm in there, for a few extra bucks, I replace them. Whether the car coulda, shoulda, woulda is of no matter to me. I don't want to be that guy that loses a $20k engine because I didn't want to spend a few hundred in areas where we repeatedly read there have been issues. The car was bought at a bargain price BECAUSE the issues (real or exaggerated) drove the used market on them down, so why not take advantage of that to greatly reduce or eliminate those same items. Affording the purchase price of a 996 is the easy part.