What is the best time/mileage to replace the water pump in the car
Before a catastrophic failure or as soon as carefully monitored seepage from the weep hole is observed or coolant consumption is noticed.
You don’t say…
How many miles on this vehicle?
Being that it is an 08 it would be good to replace the pump (by age) as preventive maintenance, BUT it appears that the pump is driven by the timing chain and replacement will be difficult/costly. The chain should probably be replaced, too.
Depending on miles and maintenance history it could make sense to replace the pump, chain(s), and associated components now.
CSA
I replace mine, on my 1998 Civic, every 180,000 miles (with every other timing belt), but I’m betting your car doesn’t use a timing belt, so I’d round it up to 200,000 miles.
The water pump on your vehicle isn’t considered a maintenance item. So there’s no schedule for replacement.
The water pump is replaced when it starts leaking or starts making noise.
Tester
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I agree 100% with this, but as Whitey said - if you have a timing belt, then replacing the water pump at the same time is a good idea.
If you have a timing chain, then wait til it fails. My 05 4runner had the original water pump when I sold it with over 310k miles. So most of the time they last a very long time.
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I’ve never seen a water pump catastrophically fail without warning anyway. I’m sure it happens from time to time. But generally you get a lengthy warning sign of either a coolant leak and / or squeaking bearings.
So I agree, I wouldn’t change it if there isn’t an issue with it, unless it’s getting removed anyway (replacing timing belt, replacing timing cover gasket, or something along those lines).
I had one fail all at once w/no warning on my truck one time. The pulley shaft broke right in half. It made a heck of a racket so I stopped immediately for a look-see, pulley clearly tilted at an angle, but no harm done. I’ve never replaced a water pump pro-actively though. Besides that one incident, all the other times they would start to show clear symptoms for weeks or months before they completely fail. I think that’s the best strategy for the OP too, wait until there’s clear symptoms. Unless they are planning a 3000 mile cross country trip, much of it through a remote desert in August, or something.
I had a water pump bearing seize with no warning.
The V-belt started screaming as the smoke started rising up under the hood.
Lucky, I was only 2 blocks from the shop.
Tester
In my defense, I did say I’m sure it does happen! Anything mechanical could fail suddenly, so I figured someone had seen it.
I worked with a guy who let the water pump leak for months on his 7.3 Powerstroke. It would literally pour coolant each time he shut the engine off. I bet he could’ve paid for several water pumps with the money he spent on antifreeze. He had plenty of warning. No catastrophic failure, though. I expected the fan to fly through the hood at any minute, but he finally changed the pump before that happened.
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