Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting I'm on my 5th Water Pump now!

I had two from Advance go out with the seep leak. I then got my money back from Advance and bought one from Auto Zone. That went out. I then went to NAPA and bought a FORD rebuilt water pump and it has worked fine ever since. Apparently there are some cheappppppp pumps out there....

I just got off the phone with the Ford place and they said when they contacted the Tech Service at the Ford Factory they Tech service people knew exactly what was wrong and how to fix it. Apparently others have had the same problems and Ford has addressed the issue. Like we didn't already know that.

The Tech Service people said to change the water pump again and also an extra hose on the cooling system. I'll find the details out when I pick my car up and post the exact hose and reason for the change.

I suspect the new hose is larger and alleviates the excessive pressure behind the impeller causing the seal to go bad prematurely.

DaveNC

Now this is interesting.....I'd like to know which hose for sure!!!!

Thanks,
BT

Well I'm going to pick my car up at lunch today and here's the story from the mechanic who talked to the Ford Tech Service people.

When my car superheated and destroyed my motor the top radiator hose got damaged. Not visible to the naked eye but internal damage. The hose then proceeded to contaminated the system with microscopic pieces of the material the hose is made of. These microscopic pieces not visible to the naked eye get wedged in between the seal and shaft of the water pump and eventually destroy the seal.

The solution is to replace the upper hose and then throughly flush the system of the remaining fuid. The mechanic said he flushed the system for 2 hours. He stated he had never heard such a thing before and neither have I. I'll double check to make sure of which hose specifically Ford said to replace and post the info. This would apply to any of the Tours that superheated I suspect. Me flushing the system without changing the hose probably wouldn't have fixed my problem.

Regards,
DaveNC

It's the upper radiator hose assembly. A $83.00 part. An octopus hose that goes all over the place. Hope this is it.

DaveNC

From recent info related to me by Ford mechanic working on my son's work van (good ole torque monster (7.3) that a Ford rep. looks like contamination is also was the reason for impeller breakage. Goes back goes to the casting process, and some block designs/casting processes used on the Duratec's and also the Zetec's ( mechanic said he had broken immpeller's on them also???) have had much more residual left. And later on after the heat cycles it will let go. I remember the first time I flushed mine a couple years after I purchased it new many pieces of casting residue and sand came out. I flushed that block and and heater core for several hours. I filled with water and drove til it got up to temp and back flushed. At 36k I replaced the pump just in case, it looked fine.

My 2 cents or more fuel on the fire?
Paul
98 Duratec built 07/97

Martha....add a upper radiator hose to the list will ya!!!!



Thanks,
Bob

Well, I'll be damned if that's the fix. I too am on my 5th water pump. The stock one failed at 68K. The impellor was split in half so I was able to retrieve the entire thing. The car did get very hot, so hot that the temperature sender broke at the same time.

Anyway I replaced the WP with a GMB. When that failed I went to a Ford. Then just to get it fixed another GMB. Then when that failed I tried one from Pep Boys (I can't remember the name). Each time the pumps last between 2-3 months and then starting dripping out the weep hole.

This is a very frustrating problem; the car runs FANTASTIC otherwise.

Please keep us informed of your progress.

Have you replaced your upper radiator hose? David said this is the cause of the multiple water pump failures due to pieces of the hose breaking away..

Just an update to this thread since I started it. It is now 4 months since I had my last water pump replaced along with the upper radiator hose and a total system flush. Guess what no more water pump failures. Ford finally diagnosted it correctly. I hope this helps those that are going throught the same crap with multiple water pump failures. I guess the safest route to go if the car gets hot is to just go ahead and replace the upper radiator hose and flush the system when you replace the pump.

DaveNC