Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting '95 Duratec water pump

My car has been overheating so I pulled the water pump off of it and found that the plastic impeller was cracked. To those of you that have replaced yours, I was just wondering if the new Ford replacement water pump has a metal impeller?

No, but it comes with different color of plastic.

How many miles on your car.

The original pumps on especially the earl Duratecs are prone to impellar failure anytime after 50K miles. Bad design or material. Also the inner stainless steel cone could come loose, either as a result of the impellar breakage, or, if not fixed may cause the impellar to fracture. Ther are lots of posts on this subject. Anyway, most people are not having problems with the replacement plastic impellars if the cone is tight in the housing which stays on the head side.

The metal impellar model is a GMB pump made in Japan. It is a quality unit which is sold at NAPA under the Duro Pro name, and is P/N 125-1910. Autozone may still also sell the GMB, not sure, but the NAPA is less money, about $55.Good Luck.

I absolute adore my car. I have had plenty of cars but none have I loved so much as my Contour.
However, I have a question. Currently I have the pleasure of looking at my '96 sitting idle in the driveway because my SECOND waterpump is done. Impeller? Likely. The first one was replaced while still under warrenty.
Here's my question. There are two.
Obviously this is a problem. A potentially dangerous one. So then WHY HASN'T FORD ISSUED A RECALL NOTICE?????!!!!!! Obviously it's more cost efficient to them to have us chumps handing over dough to have it replace (again and again?) then for them to absorb the cost and improve their reputation and cutomer relations.
My second question is; has anyone ever considered grabbing all the CEG members and getting together some sort of petition to send to Ford to force them to make this a recall issue? Or maybe there is some way to copy all the POSTS relating to this issue and sending it to them.
I figure that if you take this issue, which I have; the moosing issue, which I have; the throttle hang issue, which I have; the faulty front end issue (vibration), which I have had, (subnote: I can't exact remember where I heard it but I was told that the front end of the Contour/Mystique was designed for the Ztech engine and not the bigger, heavier, more torquey Duratech and hence the tie rod/CV joints, etc, probs); the rear end suspension clunk noise, yup, got that too; the dash light problem, do I have that? Yup, but I think my problem is just blown bulbs since my fuses seem good but I'm just too lazy to pull apart my front dash plus I'm really leaning toward the indiglos http://www.contour.org/forums/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=7;t=002786
By the way, any info on how to get at the dash lights? Anyway, the problems listed all appear to be common. If we take these problems to Ford, why can't we force their hand to issue a recall(s)?
Makes sense to me. But what do I know? :rolleyes:

My guess is that Ford knows about these problems, and has made a calculated risk decision that these problems, while widespread, do not represent a significant safety issue. If the problems mostly occur after the warranty period, all the better.