Water pump failure

bluedog333 · May 30, 2015

Evening all. Been getting an intermittent squealing and other odd noises the past couple of days, so a quick check under the bonnet and I notice the water pump pulley has about 1-2mm of movement in it( under belt tension ). I don't know that this is the source of the noise, but I shall replace the pump with an Airtex one as a matter of course.
Apart from age, are there many other reasons for failure? I've only just had the PAS pump off so I've had all the belts off, they're correctly tensioned and the pulleys seem all in line ( by eye, anyway ). Is this new problem just a coincidence, or should I be looking closer at pulley and belt alignment? Have I answered my own question!?
Cheers in advance!

SmileySteve · May 30, 2015

Over tension can cause early failure, but sounds like you answered your question.
How many miles on the pump? They sometimes work on ok even with a bit of play but TBH if its showing wear replacement before failure definitely the right way!

bluedog333 · May 30, 2015

Exact miles unknown as it's a Disco conversion done by previous owner, he said 90k ish. I'll double-check tensions tomorrow and check wheel bearings too, as I've had a slight hub cap leak for a while ( although the bearings tend to go tickety tick before squealy squeal ! ).

SmileySteve · May 30, 2015

Pump will squeal when revved up / ticking over and stationary, wheel bearings only when moving so should be easy to differentiate.
Alternator bearings can squeal too but also rumble on tickover.
Squeal may even just be the belt slipping a bit, usually worse when just after starting up or if weather a bit damp

THEengineer · May 30, 2015

could just be rubbish quality,not hard to change though

bluedog333 · May 30, 2015

SmileySteve said:
Pump will squeal when revved up / ticking over and stationary, wheel bearings only when moving so should be easy to differentiate.
Alternator bearings can squeal too but also rumble on tickover.
Squeal may even just be the belt slipping a bit, usually worse when just after starting up or if weather a bit damp

It's not belt squeal, it's intermittent but becoming more regular, I haven't been able to recreate it from standstill which is why I was also thinking wheel bearing. As I said, I haven't been to investigate it properly yet, but am I right in thinking the water pump pulley should have no movement, so I should replace the pump anyway?

kes86 · May 30, 2015

I replaced the belt tensioner and belt and scratched my head about the squealing noises from my 300 tdi. Then one day the noise got so bad, it was embarrassing.

Took the belt off and span everything, only to find the water pump had completely failed. You couldn't tell with it under tension.

New pump, and fine again.

Water pump failure

bluedog333

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SmileySteve

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bluedog333

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SmileySteve

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THEengineer

whatever

bluedog333

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kes86

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