Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting 4 Water Pumps in 8 months

I should title mine "4 Water Pumps in 12-months".

I have a 1998 SE Sport with a V6 and 5-speed. I bought it new in October 1998 and it now has 90,000+ miles. It was my wife's car until I got tired of replacing water pumps every 3-4 months and I couldn't trust the car to be reliable for her anymore. I just bought her a 2004 Volkwagen GLI and now I use the SE to get to and from work (saves the miles on my SVT).

We have had the water pumps replaced at a Ford dealer each time, three times by our local dealer and once at a dealer out of town (we were on vacation). All four pumps began leaking around the bearings, beginning as a small leak at first, then fluid just poured out. We paid for the first pump, Ford has paid for the last three. Now the pump in the car is going again - it's been about 4-months. This time Ford says that I have to pay for the new pump as it has been more than one year since they replaced the first one - "the warranty is only for one year from the first covered repair"! Even if they haven't gotten it right yet! I don't think it is the housing as Ford replaces the entire water pump and belt each time. The Ford Regional Service Represenative told me that the dealer is overtightening the belt because "he can't believe that we could have gotten four faulty water pumps".

I haven't solved the problem so I could use some help as well.