Question:

> My 1994 Vision TSi (3.5 engine) has 121,000 km and I have never had any > water pump trouble. It supposedly has the "old" design pump too.

My original 93 (old design) pump lasted 91000 miles, so you aren’t doing too bad. I replaced it with a TRW aftermaket pump. BIG mistake- it only lasted 9000 miles. I was *PISSED*, and put a new-design Chrysler pump on it. No trouble since… > Are there any warning symptoms to indicate trouble or does it just fail all > at once?

My original pump started leaking long before it failed. I had plenty of time to get the parts together and change the pump, but the bearings were beginning to feel "crunchy" by the time I got in there. The TRW pump wasn’t so nice. My wife was driving (glance at ceiling, shake head…) so I dont’ know *exactly* what transpired. The pump started making "some noise" which was summarily ignored. Later, the noise stopped but the temp guage pegged (someone who shall remain nameless didn’t *notice* this until the ‘check guages’ light also illuminated). Anyway, by the time I was able to survey the carnage, the pump had locked and the pulley had sheared off the shaft and wedged itself against the timing cover. The timing belt was well-frayed, but believe it or not the engine *still ran* with the timing belt *sliding* on the seized waterpump pulley. Amazing, but the pungent smell of burning Gates rubber after 5 minutes of idling told me that it wouldn’t have lasted long that way….Also, much to my relief, the 3.5 survived the overheat (aluminum heads and all- God help us if these new all-aluminum v6s ever overheat) with no damage at all. That was over 20,000 miles ago. — Steve Lacker sglacker at texas dot net If you can