water pump life and replacement recommendations

I can’t help you but if I tell this story it might help someone somewhere some day. Early one morning, probably around 2:00 AM or so. I got on highway 95 headed south off of I-40 at Needles. Just before the junction of 95 & 26 my temp started going up. There at the junction was a station yet of course it was closed.


I was driving a cab over Freightliner. So I jacked the hood up & found a heater hose was leaking water. I was scratching my head thinking about what I could do. The only thing I could come up with was a piece of sand paper, small tube of glue & a roll of electric tape.


I took the sand paper & cleaned off the hose about 5 inches both ways from where it was leaking, them I took the glue & spread a very thin layer of glue on the hose in that area. I let it dry quite a bit, them tool the electric tape & wrapped it around & around the hose as tight as I could. And thankfully there was a water faucet in front of that station & the water was on & I filled my radiator up.


From there on I was keeping an eye on my temp heading on down 95 to Blyth & I-10, & it stayed right were it was suppose to be. When I stopped to fuel at Bill Headstreams place at Quartzsite, AZ my radiator was still full of water & not the lest bit of water had leaked out. I drove it to Arkansas like that & not a single drop of water leaked out if it.

 

If it not broke don't fix it,,water pumps can last 50K miles or a million,,
Cat has one pump,, flat rate says about 8 hours or so to replace ,,years ago I did my first cat water pump and even rebuilt it is less than 7 hours,, Cat water pumps are expensive ,,of course any thing on a cat cost too much,,

 

Just my 2 cents, I am one if it isn't broke and I think it WILL brake soon due to the amount of hours or miles the component has on it, I WILL REPLACE the component. I don't want to be the one that is sitting on the side of the road waiting for the repair guy or worse yet the HOOK, therefore, when I think it is going bad or is close to the end of its life it is being replaced. I would recommend doing ALL the hoses and the water pump. With that being said, I know nothing about CAT so I cant help you there. When I did my preventative maintenance to the coolant system on my truck, I replaced any hose the the coolant touches. Also if my metal pipes looked rusty they were also changed. Just as a side note after you complete this task you may encounter a leak or two as I did(slow leaks some hot leaks, some cold), so be prepared if you go on the road immediately after your maintenance, bring the tools you need to tighten your hose clamps. It also doesn't hurt to have a gallon or two of coolant on the truck to top off the surge tank while you are trying the seal everything up. GOOD LUCK

 

You can certainly replace the pump. Most pumps start to weep out the weep hole when they fail. They do not outright fail and gush coolant out. Most just start a slow leak. Your current pump could start to leak next week or in 5 years. ###### if you do, ###### if you don't. No right or wrong answer here. If you are removing some other parts for access to change your hoses and the water pump becomes easier to change in the process, I say go for it.

 

And you may put on a new water pump & it may start leaking within the 1st 100 miles or it might last 500,000 miles.

Back in the 80's I was restoring a 59 ford pickup & when I rebuilding the engine I forgot to place the water pump in a bucket of water, & the 1st problem was my water pump was leaking & no one in this small town had a water pump for it.

 

Yes, I can speak from experience. I replaced my water pump and 364 days later (1 year warranty) it started leaking (weep hole). Took it off and took it to Detroit and they warrantied it, got the new one to the shop and I installed it on day 365 and it started leaking immediately (defect in the casting). I called Detroit and left a message because it was after hours. The following business day I got a call back and luckily they warrantied it, surprisingly enough. Third times a charm!!!!

 

A indication off the pump going bad is seeing how much play it has.
I'm surprise nobody mentioned it.
Undo the belt,feel how much up and down play the pump has.
Unless it was very tight and with the mileage you have,i would replace it.
Don't forget that a roadsite replacement will cost you several times more then a preventive replacement now.