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Water Pump - Need Help Deciding

F

Ferret II

CEG'er
Joined
Dec 8, 2004
Messages
66
Location
WA
I never thought I'd be replacing another water pump as preventative maintenance, but I recently bought a '96 Mystique (2.5, MTX) with 53,000 miles. I love this little car and it drives like a dream! Now I want to replace the pump asap, since I have no idea if it stil has the original one with the faulty plastic impeller.

I've read through several threads here and still can't decide if I should put in the complete Ford pump with an upgraded plastic impeller or an aftermarket (partial) pump with a metal impeller. We put a DuroPro (gmB) metal impeller pump in my '95 SE about 50K miles ago and have been happy with it (at 102K now). However, our CarQuest guy recently said the DuroPro gmB water pump is not a quality he'd recommend, so I wonder if maybe the quality has changed for the worse since we got ours.

There seems to be no shortage of options for aftermarket pumps: O'Reilly's (MasterPro and Cardone), Carquest (AFC Corp with lifetime warranty/but plastic impeller; and Graf, Europeon brand), Autozone (Duralast), and NAPA (NAPA). Most are are around $70 and have metal impellers. I could also get the full Ford pump for about $70.

Since there doesn't seem to be a strong opinion in the threads about replacing either the full pump or aftermarket, or which aftermarket to chose I'm thinking it may not matter that much. Still, any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
 
Absolutly, positively replace it with the complete Ford pump. The price is almost the same, impeller is stong, easier install, never worry about leaks. It's a no brainer.

/end thread.
 
With the Ford kit you get a new pump, housing, and all 3 hoses and clamps. You don't have to worry about leaks, and having the hoses already installed on the new housing makes installation easier.

I've done it both ways. I'd recommend the Ford pump kit every time.
 
Thanks! I got the impression from earlier threads the partial pump was easier to install; maybe that's if hoses on the original housing are intact? We bought the hoses for the install of the DuroProf gmB water pump on my '95 Ford, but we didn't need them.

I also got the impression the improved plastic Ford impeller can still self-destruct, though rarely does so. I guess that's the crux of my concern, if that improved Ford plastic impeller is truly completely safe from exploding and ruining my engine. I wonder why Ford stuck with plastic instead of going to a metal impeller.
 
So where can I find this Ford pump kit. My first guess is a dealer, but $70 sounds pretty cheap to me. Don't get me wrong I'm not complaining, just skeptical. Oh well, I guess I'll give them a call tomorrow morning and find out myself, if not, where have you guys found it?
 
uu_demon said:
So where can I find this Ford pump kit. My first guess is a dealer, but $70 sounds pretty cheap to me. Don't get me wrong I'm not complaining, just skeptical. Oh well, I guess I'll give them a call tomorrow morning and find out myself, if not, where have you guys found it?
Click to expand...

The best price I found when I bought mine was through Amazon.com. $85 shipped.

http://www.amazon.com/Motorcraft-PW449-New-Water-Pump/dp/B000EQ8XRC/ref=au_pf_pfg_s?ie=UTF8&Model=Contour%7C635&n=15684181&s=automotive&Make=Ford%7C54&Year=2000%7C2000&vehicleType=automotive&newCar=1&carId=001
 
Hi. I started the thread and here's an update.

We ended up going with the Motorcraft (full pump) from Amazon, which Smokin' Joe linked to a couple messages back. I think it cost a bit less on Amazon when we bought it, but is still much less han the price Ford had quoted. I don't know about an issue related to needing new bolts, which I've read can be hard to find, but I'm almost certain we re-used the old ones. The pump works great. If you have a 2.0 liter engine, though, I don't think this is the right water pump.

This was for our '96 Mystique LS (though is the same pump as for our '95 Contour SE). We recently got the Mystique with only 53K miles from a dealer, and replaced the pump, which was working great, as preventitive maintenance. The Mystique is very clean appearing, but beyond notes on CarFax and a call to Ford regarding what re-calls had been done, we don't have a detailed maintenance history. The pump we replaced had the a white plastic impeller. From all I've read on this Forum, the impeller that could break apart and lead to almost immediate overheating was black. So it's a bit of a mystery to me that we took out a WP that appeared in great shape and had a white impeller. Maybe the previous owner (who was also the original owner) already replaced the pump. Perhaps he/she had done a "maintentance" replacement like we did around 50K on the '95 SE. Hubby, who did the work, was somewhat dismayed to take out such a nice-looking pump, but there was no way of knowing if we had the pump with the bad impeller, and now we don't have to worry.
 
You made the right choice. Did the waterpump belt look ok? I also reused the mounting bolts with no issues.

I replaced the stock, white impeller waterpump in my 2000 SVT when it starting making noise. I though I was going to find a cracked impeller but the noise was actually coming from the metal cone that had become dislodged and was rattling around inside the housing.
 
I bought a gmb pump it was like 40 shipped,works pretty good,i just remember back in early 2000s everyone talked about the gmb water pump.....and then i went to the junk yard and found a 2002 cougar 2.5 and took the housing off it had a good cone in it still got it for 6 bucks hope it last but its been a year now
 
Hi. Sorry, Smokin' Joe. I'm subscribed to this thread but somehow missed an email there was a reply. The belt on the Mystique's WP was clearly worn, and we replaced it.

We're keeping the WP we took our from the Mystique in storage, as it looks great - a Ford unit with white impellor - but I would be very hesitant to use it given I don't know if it is the original WP or not, and would guess it was given the mileage of 53K; if original I fear there could be a danger of it breaking apart without warning, even though it is has a white impellor. Weren't the bad impellors - those in danger of breaking apart without warning - supposed to be black? I have read through several threads about the WP issue, and this is what I understood. Yet, one of us recalls the one removed from the Contour '95 SE- which was the original WP - also had a white impellor.

iloveSVT, we replaced the '95 SE's original WP with the gmb (the half pump) years ago, and it's still fine 50K+ miles later. We did have to replace the WP belt tensioner (used a $65+ OEM part) recently (and of course we've replaced the belt); we had done a nice fix on the tensioner long ago, but it had begun making noise on start-up.
 
I'm almost positive that the water pump you removed from the car was NOT the original pump. As from what I recall all Contour's from 95-97 had the black impeller pump, which was later replaced by the improved white impeller pump. The material that was selected for the impeller in the earlier design could not with stand the heat cycling of the coolant and became brittle... much like their stupid wiring harness insulation. I swear the Ford engineer's that worked on this platform did not do well in their material classes in college...
 
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