Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Water Pump Replacement

I know a lot has been writen here about the 2.5 WP, but I thought I would just log in with my story. I did the replacement myself in about 90 minutes. It only took about 15 minutes to remove and replace the WP, but it took about 45 to clear all the sh*t out of the way to get to the WP and about another 30 minutes to hook it all back up. As suspected, the plastic impeler was gone. It was broken in two pieces and the hub was chewed to hell. The thing doesn't appear to be made out of standard injection molded plastic, but out of some kind of layered plastic material. I replaced it with a Duro aftermarket WP with a cast metal impeler. It was all pretty straight forward and I didn't even drain the cooling system (even though the shop manual says to). I just let it idle for about 20 minutes and slowly refilled the over flow container (leaving the cap off). You just have to make sure you remember which holes the long bolts (that hold the housing to the block) go into. You should also use a small wrench to avoid over-tightening the bolts as there was no way I could get a torque wrench into that space. This is the first work I've done on a transverse mounted engine and I thought it would be a nightmare...but it wasn't too bad at all.

I had mine replaced a week ago @ 215,000km and still going but was leaking. I told the mechanic to replace it with a new pump with the metal impeler. When i picked up the car he told me that he couldn't find an aftermarket pump so he put in a stock water pump from Ford. I hope this one lasts as long as the old one did.

That's exactly why I ended up doing the job myself. My mechanic said he couldn't get a WP with a metal impeller, so I went and ordered it on-line from Napa. He then said that, if he used that part, he wouldn't guarantee his work. At that point I figured it was best just to take a shot at it myself. I have to tell you, though, if it weren't for all the good info and encouragement from the people on this board, I would have never tried it.