I hear that Autozone sells a water pump with a metal impeller, but I've also come to find out that the impeller isn't the part that fails first. There's some sort of shroud (cone?) made of metal that, over time, loosens and slides into the impeller. Since the cone is metal, and the (stock) impellers are plastic, the cone shreds the impeller, and forks up your cooling system.
Also, I was wondering if this has been a problem on newer Contours and Mystiques. I personally own a '99 Mystique with 45k on the clock and no problems so far. Is this pump going to fail on me, no matter how nice I am to the car? Should I go ahead and replace it with the Autozone special?
---Shifty. He has no mods.
